Campaign Setting Intro

Foreword

An introduction to my homebrew campaign setting. I wanted to combine an obvious city sized megadungeon with a open sandbox setting where ratcatchers are crawling minor dungeons, looting treasure and putting out fires. The primary central tension is that the primary peacekeeping/expansionist force has collapsed overnight, leaving a massive power vacuum in the area. Many forces are scrabbling to gain an advantage in the chaos and adventurers are caught in the rising tides of chaos and conflict. Inspirations : Eberron, Dark Souls/Bloodborne, Matt Colville, Wandering Inn, The Gods are Bastards.

Introduction

The Kingdom of Ostravia is shattered, its Capital destroyed.

On the eve of the 50th Anniversary of Good King Weyland’s prosperous rule, a grey mist swallowed the capital city of Lorya and roiled across the land. Those who return from the mists say it is now a land of death and decay, where the former denizens still walk as pale reflections of their former selves. Those who enter Lorya, now known as the Dead City, do not return.

The local heroes, legends and chieftains present within the capital for the celebrations disappeared overnight, and in the resulting power vacuum the kingdom has fractured into many warring baronies vying for power. Marauding tribes of hobgoblins, lizardfolk and sahuagin, once subjugated by the King’s peacekeeping forces, now grow stronger and more daring. The neighbouring countries of Drakes, Dwarves and Elves now hold great animosity towards the humans and blame them for the vanishment of their couriers and ambassadors. 

The Kingdom has no allies and its heroes are lost. The mists of Lorya’s Lament are still spreading, and no-one knows when or if they will end. Ostravia is in its death throes, but its final lashing spasms may threaten the whole of the continent.

Ancestries

Elves

Extremely conservative due to their timeless nature, most elves are content contemplating the nature of the universe within their secluded societies. The elven society is so change averse that individuals who even leave their groves and floating cities are viewed as rash troublemakers and are known as ath’anwe, a word which roughly translates to “Troublemaker.”

However, change must occur when existence is at stake.

With the threat of the expansionist Kingdom of Ostravia threatening to conquer their lands some disparate societies of high elves, wood elves, plains elves and drow formed the Confederacy of the Stars and Moon with unprecedented speed. Reluctant to face the combined forces of the elves, a non-aggression pact was signed leading to the stagnation of Ostravia’s conquests. After Lorya’s Lament and the collapse of the Kingdom, the Confederacy has both established itself into the position of power and lost its reason to exist. Now elves argue in long arduous democratic processes about whether to conquer the human lands or whether to dissolve the Confederacy in its entirety.

Those few elves who choose to worship a higher power devote themselves to the members of the Court of Seasons. A powerful group of Archfey who enact an endlessly recurring story of courtly intrigue within the Feywild. The highest form of worship is the Performance, where Elves embody an individual Archfey and perform a year-long passion play of love and betrayal. Numerous actors will die as part of the Performance,  and Court of Seasons will only resurrect the players if they deem the stagecraft worthy.

Particularly aggressive elven tribes, now known collectively as the Wild Elves, never joined the Confederacy and  refused to negotiate with Humans. Unwilling to view non-elves as sentient, they eat the flesh of the trespassers within their lands. Now with the disbandment of the King’s Army they are eager to exact their revenge on the entire human race for daring to consider elves as their equals.

Dwarves

Natural miners and smiths, dwarves are known for their unassailable mountain keeps. Once driven out of their underground kingdoms by ancient enemies now known only as the Fleshshapers, the unifying goal of the dwarves is to reclaim the glory that was theirs.

Clan and family loyalty is of great importance for the dwarves, and they do not trust or forgive lightly. A grudge made by one dwarf may be carried on by their descendants for many generations, leading to conflicts between different clans that have lasted for centuries.

The Dwarves believe in Moradin who forged the Dwarven race out of Steel and Stone, and worship him by honing a craft. Any item made with enough skill may become holy, so each Dwarven priest forges their own holy symbols. Only the most skilled craftsmen are allowed to craft statues, as they are believed to contain a piece of the soul of their subject. Sentient items are treated with great reverence and are often placed in shrines for Dwarves to admire and idolize.

Their mountain keeps protect the dwarves from both invaders above and below. In their endless search for their forgotten lands, they often dig too deep and unearth horrors that should be best left buried, remnants of the Fleshshapers. Recently some clans have been utilising Fleshshaper artefacts to fight against the underground horrors while others view this as heresy.

Drakes

Proud and avaricious, the descendants of dragons share many similarities with their ancestors. The Drakes built great Walled Cities which act as a loose alliance of city states in the Floodplains. It is said that dragon bones were used in the foundations of the Walled Cities, and they have never been conquered by non-Drakes.

Drakes are highly nationalistic and pride for their home city is a integral part of their culture leading to endless bickering about which city is best. City states often send out armies and mercenaries to hold proxy wars for different trading advantages, but if any city is attacked by a non-Drake force they will rapidly rally together to repel the outsider.

Drakes believe in the cycle of reincarnation where exemplary Drakes are reborn as Dragons and while others are reborn as baser reptiles such as kobolds and skinks. Karma is bought and hoarded, commonly through donating gold to the Walled Cities defenses. Upon death, the Twin Judges, Bahamut and Tiamat weigh the soul of a Drake and decide whether it is worthy of ascension.

Within the last few centuries there has been an immigration of Gnolls into the Walled Cities after their displacement by the Humans and there is an unspoken alliance between the two races. However, conflicts and prejudices do occur and rarely are Gnolls found in the ruling classes within the Walled Cities.

The average Drake does not have wings and cannot use breath weapons, though rarely a Drake is born with a stronger draconic heritage. These are known as Oldblood Drakes and it is viewed as a great honour to have one born within the family.

Half Orcs

A deeply spiritual, and passionate people, half-orcs generally live in tribes with wildly varying customs. These customs range from druidism to open demon worship. A common thread between different tribes is the practice of ancestor worship, where tales of the half-orc heroes of old are recounted through oral tradition. A half-orc chooses to embody the traits of a particular ancestor, and practices their worship by practicing the skills and arts of their ancestor. This oral tradition and ancestor worship is sufficiently powerful to raise these orc paragons' abilities to grant boons and favours to the levels of the Saints of human faiths, though each paragon’s worshippers is only found within one clan.

The oldest orc clans remember many things, ancestral knowledge passed through oral tradition, including where some of the oldest evils are left buried. Orc clans fight over these areas, some seeking to keep them hidden forever while others seek to release the seals. These hidden wars are viewed as petty tribal squabbles by those who think of the orcs as barbarians.

Half-orcs living within the lands of Ostravia were often conscripted into service of the King’s Army at a young age, but now with the country splintered they have a newfound freedom. With no knowledge of anything but a military life some half-orcs fall into banditry while others roam the lands as knight errants providing the innocents with some semblance of protection.

Gnolls

A reclusive, pragmatic and self-sufficient people of hunter-gatherers, gnolls live in tightly knit clans with a rigid social pecking order. Important decisions are often delegated to figures of authority, and once a choice is made the entire tribe will put aside their differences and act as one. The most extreme example of this is the entire Gnoll species declaring war on a common enemy, the Raskghar.

Their ancestral enemy, the Raskghar, are twisted reflections of the Gnolls. Created centuries ago from the Gnollish race in a demonic ritual, the Raskghar traded their civilization and sanity for wild strength and madness. Barely sentient and warlike, the Raskghar hunt in order to sacrifice more Gnolls in a ceremony that grants the Raskghar increased strength and intelligence. While the Gnolls were weakened due to conflict with the Raskghar, Human forces drove them into Drake held lands, where they formed an alliance in order to survive.

Every decade, all Gnoll tribes send a representative with a gift to the gathering of the tribes. The gift is meant to benefit all gnolls, and is appraised based on its practical value and the difficulty of acquiring the item. The quality of the gift reflects directly upon the social standing of the tribe that offered it, a good gift will gain a tribe substantial influence amongst the gathering. These gatherings were historically more infrequent, but now with the waning of the Gnoll’s influence they wish to rebuild their strength.

The Gnolls practice a form of animism, where each locality has a deity governing it and the communities living within. Often, when entering a new area a Gnoll will offer the local deity a gift of food and drink in order to win favour and good fortune. These deities are neither good nor evil, and often harbour an unpredictable dual nature, capable of either protection or destruction depending on mood and circumstance.

Ratfolk

With their racial history a constant struggle against persecution and slavery, the ratfolk value freedom above all else.

Their earliest history records them as servants and fodder for blood sacrifices in the Snakemen Empire of Hashel, where rat blood fuelled snake immortality. The transgressions of the Hashelites eventually grew too much for the ratfolk, so they retreated to their warrens and hatched a bold plan for insurrection.

A clever ratfolk known as Zenta the Wise, famed for his oracular predictions, manipulated himself into the position of advisor to the Opal Emperor of Hashel. Zenta foretold of a future endlessly ruled by the Opal Emperor if he made a sacrifice of a feathered serpent, the Couatl who were considered sacred and sacrosanct. This prophecy was a lie. And the Emperor blinded by lust for power believed it.

The divine curse flowed through the veins of the Emperor as he drank the blood of Couatl and the Snakemen lost their powers over life and death. Seizing the moment of confusion, the ratfolk took up arms against their masters. But it was not enough and Zenta died for his treachery.

As the ratfolk were being cut down by snake soldiers, a young girl named Taiva saw that the Ratfolk rebellion was doomed. As a desperate final attempt she entreated with the feathered serpents for aid. Affronted by Taiva’s audacity, after the ratfolk plan involved the death of one of their own, the feathered serpents refused and banished her from their lands. However, Taiva’s words touched the heart of a young Coatl and it followed behind her as she left the enclave of serpents.

And so, Taiva rode the Coatl into the Snakemen capital wielding a glowing shortsword rallying the scattered forces of the ratfolk behind her. They marched into the square beneath the Pyramid of the Sun, as the Snakemen were displaying the desecrated corpse of Zenta as a reminder of the price of rebellion. Overcome by rage, Taiva cried out and challenged the Opal Emperor to a duel. And the Emperor foolhardy in his hubris accepted.

Feeling his powers return, the Emperor laughed and unleashed a powerful bolt of arcane energy, scouring the earth into a thick plume of smoke. As the smoke cleared, Taiva and the Coatl reappeared, clad in an aura of silver-gold flame, seemingly unharmed by the blast.. Sensing something was amiss, the Emperor ordered his sorcerers to fire on the duo, yet they continued to advance unaffected by the blood magics. The divine curse still flowed through their veins and they could not harm another Coatl. 

Then with shortsword in hand, Taiva climbed unchecked to the top of the Pyramid and slayed the Emperor in a single stroke. Seeing that the deed was done,Taiva held the Emperor’s head in the air in victory as she crumbled to ash, her life force burnt out in the effort. When the head of the snake falls, the tail quickly follows; so the Ratfolk won their freedom and they recount the tale of Zenta the Trickster and Taiva the Brave to this day.