Anthos: Moons of Refuge
Here's mine for y'all to chew on. I deliberately left the nature of the Skaithe vague, but I imagined them to be something like the Dread from Feist's Midkemia novels or the Nightshades from the Monster Manual. I came up with this specifically for the setting search--my regular campaign setting plagiarizes shamelessly from Tolkien and other sources. It was rather challenging to deliberately avoid *all* overt influences from all the fantasy novels I ever read!
Title: ANTHOS--The Moons of Refuge
Ethos: Epic heros from seven moons struggle to reclaim their home-world from the Skaithe, a mysterious race of demonic invaders.
Heros: Our legends tell of the great Defenders, who held back the armies of Skaithe and bought time for the Kindred races to escape to Terra's moons. Our finest children seek to follow their example, forging themselves into mighty magicians and warriors that we might strike back at the Skaithe. Many die in bringing the battle to Terra, while some weary of fighting and lead us at home. We pray for the coming of Deliverers foretold, who will cripple the Skaithe with their sacrifice. We pray that someday soon, we can all return Home.
Goals: We must strike at the Skaithe whenever we can; their numbers are vast, and our presence on Terra a toehold at best. Our leaders build cohesive teams for these sallies and assign specific goals: to seek lost knowledge in a ruined city, to gather anthos for their experiments, or to destroy a particularly inviting target identified in their Dreams. The enemy grows ever more firmly entrenched, so our soldiers must temper their skills in battle as soon as they have enough training to survive Terra's challenges. Some of our children, however, are called to gentler tasks. The Kindred races work at cross-purposes as often as not, and those rare diplomats who forge lasting alliances between the races are sung of as often as our battle lords. Many heros are also called to expand our frontiers; the Moons are still largely unexplored, and carry tantalizing signs of past occupation. Perhaps this tragedy has happened before?
Threats: The Skaithe are ever a shadow on our thoughts. Their armies boiled up from the soil and rock of Terra everywhere at once; no country and little wilderness was spared their foul embrace. The Kindred races fought bravely, but were ill-prepared; after years of battle we were forced to admit that defeat was inevitable. Our greatest magicians opened portals to the Moons, and a remnant of our peoples escaped. Alas, the Skaithe are not our only enemy. Rebellious factions in our government resist the war effort, and the Dwarves grow more and more distant in their remote moon of Kalikast. Can they not see that the Skaithe will one day learn to cross the Void and strike us down again? There are even rumors of secret societies that emulate or worship the Skaithe in all their depravity! Some of our heros turn their backs on the glory of war, and work hard at home to remove such obstacles to our
unity of purpose.
Magic: Now I will reveal to you a thing not commonly known, for our leaders wisely keep it hidden from those unproven in battle. When we left Terra, we left our source of magic behind. The mysterious essence that empowers our spells and devices is called anthos, but we learned of it only through its absence. Magicians and priests absorb it from Terra naturally, enough to cast many spells each day, and it can even be used to enhance mundane abilities. No magic can be used on the Moons without a source of anthos, so those who go to Terra store their surplus power in special foci and bring it home for others. Our leaders wield powerful magic, but expend it sparingly. Ruthless plots revolving around the control of anthos divide our government; its scarcity has been a terrible setback. Anthos also gives us hope, however: our lore-masters have discovered many uses for this essence, and their research promises new and decisive weapons for the war.
Distinction: Unlike most other fantasy settings, this is a world on its way down. The actions and sacrifices of the heros keep hope alive in their peoples, however, and may yet turn the tide of war. The scarcity of magical power on the Moons is a unique plot element that tempers the theme of selfless heroism. Those who adventure extensively on Terra, where anthos is plentiful, will naturally acquire a surplus of magic that they can expend on the Moons to empower their spells and items. Political power on the Moons is closely tied to the supply of anthos, so successful adventurers can also barter their anthos for positions or favors, or even become strong leaders in their own right if they husband their supply and play the game well.
This setting is an excellent vehicle for the core D&D rules, encouraging fast advancement through the lower levels and long-term adventuring at the higher levels. The devastated landscape of Terra, the original home of all PC races, offers suitable challenges for even epic-level adventures. Terra has achieved a degree of uniformity through the ravages of war, but the seven Moons provide a wide variety of environments and societies for exciting play at any challenge level.
I guess my big complaint about most of the uses of this theme (and many other such themes) in RPG settings has been that they stopped at just saying dreams (or whatever) are connected with magic (or whatever) without actually making the dreams interact with the happenings of the game. Sure, it's easy to say something like "all magic comes from swamp moss" but what I'm looking for is how that actually changes the way players interact with the game, beyond changing "spell slots" to "moss points".
