Here is my player handout. They've already been given a sketch of some of the other stuff about the game like the fact that it's Gothic Horror Fantasy, the bit about the big Church and that there is gunpowder.
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Ok here are a few bits of common knowledge about the upcoming game world just to give you a sense of the place and some of the ways it differs from typical fantasy settings:
Generally the world and continent are called "Taera". The Velaedin Empire is where the campaign will take place. It is comprised of seven Bishoprics (though many common folk simply call them Provinces) that radiate out from a central inland sea called the Oylodi Sea.
Unlike most fantasy settings, the Velaedin Empire is the only nation of any significance in the known world. The rest of the continent is considered "wild and untamed wilderness" of desert, forest and jungle with no large scale civilization known to the Empire. Thus there is nothing in the way of external diplomacy, only border guards holding back attacks by the uncivilized barbarian races and beasts that sometimes encroach. There are small nations of Dwarves and Elves that exist on the western coast beyond the Mondarvi Mountains, but they are regarded as being in decline and there is no real border tension. Some amount of trade takes place with these "Elder Races" but they are mostly regarded as a curiosity.
One trade item of note is that the Dwarves mine gold from somewhere on the north and west side of the mountains. The Empire is on the silver standard and no gold deposits have ever been found within its confines. Thus gold is a rare and precious commodity within the Empire, primarily used by the wealthy and powerful, including the Church.
No other continents have been discovered. But there has been little effort due to an important astronomical fact: Taera is a world with two moons. These cause tempestuous oceans as tides can be violent and unpredictable. You can observe from the map that there are very few coastal cities and the ones to be found are mostly along the Icetide Bay to the east. The Oylodi Sea, measuring only some 300 miles or so in its largest dimension, is relatively safe from these massive shifts in water. Still, a sailor's life is regarded as one chosen only by the desperate or foolhardy by most folk.
As mentioned previously, the Empire is currently wracked by civil war that has been brewing for some time. Sixteen years ago the world was plunged into darkness when an extremely rare eclipse took place (it is very rare for Taera, both moons and the sun to all align at the same time). Coinciding with this event was the shaking of the earth that signaled the breaking within the Greypeak Mountains where the entire mountain upon which the great fortress city of Prophets Watch broke loose and rose to hover above the earth, signaling the return of the Darkness. This floating mountain fortress began to flood the land below it with the corrupting Darkness, bringing madness, mutation and undeath in its wake.
Nine months later reports began to come in from all corners of the Empire of babies being born as pale as the snow. These Albinos were regarded as sick, freaks, abominations or saviors, depending on who and where one asked. Eventually, after heated debate, a decree was handed down by the College of Cardinals that these children were beasts, tainted by the coming of the Darkness and were to be remanded into the custody of the Church throughout the Empire. However the Archbishop of Alinor (one of the seven Bishoprics) broke with the main Church over this. He claimed that the children were the Prophets Reborn and that they would save the Empire from the return of the Darkness. He declared that Alinor was a safe haven for any and all of the Albinos who could find their way there. For this, he was excommunicated by the Emperor and it was demanded that he step down. He refused and the first rumblings of civil war spread across the Empire.
These rumblings became a full earthquake when something extraordinary happened: All of the Albinos began to exhibit supernatural powers upon reaching puberty. When this happened the Emperor, at the urgings of some of the College of Cardinals, had those in custody within the capital Bishopric of Corcavron executed. This was considered an outrage by some, even outside of Alinor. Thus it was that the fabric of the Empire began to unravel. Some Bishoprics remain allied to the High Church, others are in revolt or desire independence, some just want aid against the coming Darkness that rumbles northward out of the Mire to the far south.
Our story begins in the southern city of Mavinor at the border between the Bishoprics of Arndenor and Estevron. Arndenor is the largest of the Bishoprics and has many natural resources as well as coastline on both the Oylodi Sea and the Icetide Bay. There has been a surge of independence and most in Arndenor wish to become a separate state and they will fight for that right if necessary. Meanwhile Estevron lies to the west and south and her southern reaches are being gobbled up by the Darkness every day.
It was there that Bill's Character (who needs a name), a Centurion of the XIII Legion fought in defense of the town of Boton, only to be swallowed by the Darkness and spat back out once again with a beast inside him that cries to burst free and kill. Somewhere north of Boton near the Grand Bend of the Greywash he hunted his old friend and fellow Legionnaire, Citeus, who suffers the same curse.
With outlying farmsteads having been ravaged by a "wolf-man", it drew the attention of a freelance hunter of the supernatural, Jason's Character (who needs a name). He lay a trap in a wooded area and he soon found himself face to face with the beast whom he thought menaced the local populace. However as he fumbled in his ever present journal for the best way to dispatch such a creature, this wolf man began to tell his story about hunting an old friend and it actually sounded believable. The pair found tracks that led to the banks of the Greywash and crossed to the other side. There they followed them through the Twinriver Wood and north along the East River. They have passed through the towns of East Bridge and Averta before arriving at Mavinor, where whispers abound of people gone missing in the night. Suspicion hangs heavy in the streets by day and doors are locked tight against the night.
Mavinor is build upon the ruin of an ancient Elven city and it contains some odd architectural blending of new structures with the old. Over all of it hangs the smell of the slaughterhouses and leatherworks that dominate the city's industry. The cattle ranches to the east between the East River and the Wilds of Entaerdin provide the city with food, clothing and jobs, but also with a great deal of odor. The stink of such industry is carried from the east side of town and through the old, and oddly ornate, sewers that were carefully engineered by the Elves before their old empire was swept away before the Darkness.
