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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nellisir" data-source="post: 4798735" data-attributes="member: 70">The Shadowend is a fairly generic dark-ages/medieval setting, but my players and I have had alot of fun with it over the years.  I'm currently working on revising and rewriting it as a "skeletal" setting with the Swords & Wizardry ruleset.  (note the introduction is a little out of date: the Queen of Larenyss is now the Queen of Shalanholt)Excuse the long post; I just copied & pasted from my wiki and a setting thread here on EN World (long neglected, alas).Introduction:Welcome to the Shadowend, a land of magic and mystery, where the dungeons of a hundred <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/lost+lands" target="_blank">lost lands</a> lie waiting for the brave, the daring, and the cunning. It is a land where the immortal <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Faerilven" target="_blank">ilvenkin</a> walk in the lands of man, valiant <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Dweorhin" target="_blank">dweorhin</a> battle <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/goblins" target="_blank">goblins</a> in an unceasing war in the depths, and cunning <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Gnomes" target="_blank">gnomes</a> uncover secrets thought lost in ages gone by.   In the lands of the Shadowend, all is new. The Second Speaking of <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Te" target="_blank">Te</a>, “So it begins”, undid all the gods had done before. <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Dragons" target="_blank">Dragons</a>, once confined by divine edict, regained the powers of their progenitors, to breath fire and change form. <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Umoth" target="_blank">Umoth</a>, the Sunfather, was freed from his imprisonment, and once more the gods war in heaven to prevent the immolation of the <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Wyrld" target="_blank">Wyrld</a>. The <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Catil" target="_blank">Lord of Smiths</a> regained his place in the <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Underhalls" target="_blank">Underhalls</a>, weaponsmith to the gods and champion of liberty.   Seek you power? Then look to the graves of kingdoms, for of the <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Fourteen+Treasures" target="_blank">Fourteen Treasures</a> of the <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/House+Lands" target="_blank">House Lands</a>, only three are claimed today. Seek you opportunity? Then look to the west, for the <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Chalice+of+Tears" target="_blank">Chalice of Tears</a> has been seen in crystal <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Ashyntarri" target="_blank">Ashyntarri</a>, and where that fell artifact goes, opportunities are laid for those willing to take them. Seek you fortune? Then look to the <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Shadowend+Forest" target="_blank">Shadowend Forest</a>, for the queen of <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Larenyss" target="_blank">Larenyss</a> has declared a crusade, and the man who does the most for her shall gain her hand and a kingdom.   Hie, is it magic you seek? Then look around, my friend, and find it in the vaulted halls of the deep forest, in the twisting passageways of the earth, in the billowing cathedrals of the clouds, and in the flowing channels of the sea. In the <a href="http://shadowend.pbworks.com/Wyrld" target="_blank">Wyrld</a>, in the Shadowend, in you, magic is already, and to find it is as easy as opening your eyes and stretching out your hand.Theme: Civilization vs ruin is something that threads through alot of the Shadowend - and civilization is losing. The forces of ruin aren't always evil (though some are), but they are amoral and uncaring. Civilization isn't always good (though some are), and it's often domineering and restrictive. I'm not sure who I'm rooting for. There is magic. There was stronger magic in the past, but while that magic is currently lost, it is neither inaccessible nor unusable. Fey, monsters, and the divine powers are strong elements in my campaigns, as well as resurrected leavings of the Amerite Empire like the Fallen and the Black Legion.  History: The rule of Law peaked in the Shadowend nearly a thousand years ago, with the rise of the Amerite Empire. When the Dragon Throne weakened, though, the peoples of the Shadowend were among the first to tear free, beginning a long period of anarchy and conflict as petty warlords, princelings, and kings fought for control. Eventually, the kingdoms of Larenyss, Arramor, Dore, Sarn, Sieriven, and Asavar coalesced from the chaos. That respite was brief, however, as Sarn fell to goblinoid hordes, and Sieriven to the divisive manipulations of the Crone Goddess Kajalla. Arramor split apart, its western reaches forming the country of Roen, Romagna, and the Forest of Eoghin. The Second Speaking of Te ushered in a new Age of the Wyrld. Divine bonds were casted off, and many remnants of past Ages surfaced for the first time in millenia. Asavar fell to a plague of monstrous creatures, though the survivors rebuilt as the kingdom of Coedalan. Innergild seceded from Dore, and Dore itself was hit by waves of orc hordes, devastated the country and reducing it to a shadow of its former self. The fey Queen of Larenyss disappeared, then reappeared, unaged, forty years later, instigating a war of revolution that irrevocably weakened the Griffon Throne, established the palatinate state of Guanes, and led to the recovery and resettlement of parts of Sieriven as Shalanholt. The sidhe returned to the Shadowend, bring a new complication to the lives of elves and men alike. The Taras Penninsula remained relatively unchanged this whole time, insofar as that change and revolution was the order of the day. Petty states rose and fell, eventually leading to the current major realms of Orbor, Triumport, Chollor, the Open Halls, Bellararan, Archen, Starfell, and Vaena (plus the ungoverned Marchlands, and a host of minor realms - many no larger than a tower keep and some farmland).Geography: The Shadowend is a mostly temperate region in the northeast corner of what was once the Amerite Empire. To the south lies the Glittering Plain, a vast grassland dominated by primitive humanoid tribes and the arcane ruins of Nekkarn. The Shadowend Forest dominates the east; a trackless expanse not even the elves have fully explored. The Kameurhorn Mountains define the northern border; beyond the Horns lies the unyielding power of the High Ice and the frozen domains of its servants. West is the Shattered Sea, and beyond that the once-mighty nations of Amatheir and Bherune.  The Shadowend may be split into four sub-regions; the Near North, Utgard, the Woodmarches, and the Hundred Kingdoms. The Near North includes the Voriskoghn, wherein dwell the Vorisk and the Vanar; the city-state of Gaidrilar, the City of Coins; the mage-city of Innergild and the realm of Dore; the dwarven greathall of Arthringlaur and its tributary realm of Kameurgard; and Keldruag tribes of Keldru. Utgard includes the eastern Kameurhorns; Tuonela, the realm of the Black Sorcerers; the wasted land of Kaulderzhun; Jarnwold, the stronghold of the Iron Witches; and countless miles of swamps, fens, forests, mountains, and moors. The Woodmarches are in many ways the front lines of civilization against the forces that would bring ruin, and include the kingdoms of Larenyss, Roen, Coedalan, and Guanes; the near-fey realm of Shalanholt; the goblinoid stronghold of Old Sarn; the ruins of Asavar; dwarven Tarandrellur and the remnants of the elven realm of Illendia. Finally, the Hundred Kingdoms of the Taras Penninsula are the gateway to the civilized west, and include the fey redoubt of Wythin Wood; sinister Blackgate; the matriarchal tyranny of Orbor; imperial Triumport, still courting Amerite favor; wizard-ruled Starfell; and the slave-trading merchants of Chollor.</blockquote>

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