Flintlock Fantasy: Hardeverden

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Calrond

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Game Information

Created Jan 22 '18
Last Post Jul 31 '19 at 5:03am
Status Complete
System Pathfinder 1e

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Thread: Flintlocks, Monster Hunting, and Political Intrigue

Game Description

The world of Hardeverden is a harsh and unforgiving land with clusters of human cities surrounded by vast forests and wilderness. Most of the world is still unexplored, and the people live in fear of what might be lurking over the mountains and in the vast forests at the edge of civilization.

Imagine a world in which humans in their thousands appeared several hundred years ago, mysteriously coming from some unknown plane to an untamed land and carving out a living. A world in which, after generations, they have since built cities, kingdoms, and empires, but they were not alone in this world.

Elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings were here before humans (or at least no one alive knows in which order they came into the world), but when humans arrived, they found other creatures here as well. Foul beasts, magical creatures, ancient beings, and cursed souls wander the land, making life even more uncertain and dangerous.

I'll be basing this very loosely on the setting of The Witcher, in which humans came to the world from elsewhere during the Conjunction of the Spheres, though your characters would not necessarily know that, as it is not common knowledge.

Quote:

"A cataclysm which occurred 1,500 years ago, trapping in our dimension many unnatural creatures, including ghouls, graveirs and vampires. These beasts have no ecological niches of their own and are merely relics of bygone times.
According to elven lore, humans arrived during the Conjunction, their own world having been destroyed. These human ancestors learned how to harness the power of primordial Chaos, and thus the first human wizards were born. Looking for a place in the world, humans took up arms against the Elder Races, who were unable to withstand the barbarians and ultimately surrendered. This is how humans came to rule the world." -- The Witcher (video game)

Imagine if no Witchers had ever been created to battle these monsters, and instead it was left up to adventurers without alchemical mutations to bring down the creatures that threatened the safety of human farms, settlements, and cities.

And in the background, political intrigue is cranking along, with the beginning of the campaign taking place about 50 years after the War of Conquest in which a king of one of seven realms declared himself the emperor of all the realms, and after a few years of war and political maneuvering, he had begun the process of annexing all seven kingdoms into his Empire. One of the kingdoms joined the empire voluntarily, and the other five kingdoms barely won the war, pushing the imperial forces back to their original borders.

Meanwhile, the increasingly displaced elves grow ever more resistant to human encroachment (and many object to elves interbreeding with humans), and have formed bands of guerilla fighters that occasionally attack human settlements and merchants.

And in human settlements, non-humans are treated as outsiders and regarded with suspicion at best and outright persecution in many cases.