The Darkening of Davokar

Queen Korinthia, At the Gates of Lindaros
(image by Martin Grip (c) Free League Publishing)

"Like a steel-clad ship in a thundering storm, she cut through the waves of darkness and dread. I was there to bear witness; I am one of few who stood in awe as the first light of dawn got caught in her armour; transforming our young Queen into a mounted, sword-wielding sun - Korinthia Nightbane, our soverign, slayer of the dark.

The blood that was spilt, the lives that were lost, the tears that keep falling from red-rimmed eyes; the skies filled with ash, the soils turned to dust, the rivers transformed into muddy trenches. Such is the price we had to pay, for the Dark Lords' betrayal, but also for the hardships that finally led us here, to the Promised Land.

Strengthened and enlightened, we begin again, the children of Alberetor matured into the mothers of Ambria. The sorrow that blackens our hearts will be delivered in tears of hope and joy, not of grief and despair. We shall harvest the fruits of earth and forests, we shall harness the force of rivers and mountains, we will rise higher than ever before. To the pleasure of Prios we shall ascend to a place where there are no shadows, where darkness is no more. Because we are the people of Korinthia Nightbane and we will never be vanquished!"

- Excerpt from Herakleo Atiio's New Year's speech, the Triumph Plaza, Yndaros

The Great War, the hordes of the Dark Lords - a nightmare which lasted two decades and ravaged the kingdom of Alberetor - before they were finally vanquished, has left little to celebrate for those who came through it. In the years that followed, the people suffered starvation, infertility and the land slowly dying from the ravages of Death Magic.

Twenty one years have now passed since Queen Korinthia vanquished her foes and rode North across the Titans in search of new, fertile lands for her people to settle - her new Kingdom of Ambria, roughly translated as "The Shining". Across the years, as the blight has advanced across the old lands, your friends and families - those who survived anyway - have slowly migrated in search of better, easier lives, and finally you have made the decision to pack up and migrate to Ambria yourself.

You know little about what to expect to the North of the mountains except that the lands your people now call home are dominated in the North by the vast forest of Davokar and that countless opportunities doubtless await for an enterprising individual like yourself.

So, packing what little you can carry on your own back, you head out towards the foothills of the Titans; towards the Lands of Opportunity; towards what is to no-doubt be a bright and prosperous future...

Ambria Awaits, Davokar Awakens

About the Game

Symbaroum is a dark fantasy RPG in which fortune seekers and treasure hunters brave the depths of the ancient forest of Davokar in search of secrets and treasures and the fabled lost city of Symbaroum. Against this backdrop, myriad factions vie for position and political favour with the various peoples living in and around the Forest and the lands of Ambria.

The game explores the fine balancing act between mankind's continual push to master and subvert the natural world, and what happens when that world pushes back - hard. Thus, combat can be deadly, players are just as likely to be rent limb-from-limb by a ravenous blight-beast as much as walk home with countless bushels of valuable treasure.

Magic is just as deadly, for the caster as well as the target - attracting corruption and blight with every spell cast - plus most casters are untrusted by many Ambrians after the ravages of the twenty-year war against the Dark Lords which, even now is killing their native lands of Alberetor.

The plan is to start off with the starter adventure from the core rulebook, and then - if all goes well, follow that up with the two subsequent adventures. This should get you familiar with the setting and the system. From there, we'll see how things go, but I'd like to try and see if we can get into the full Throne of Thorns epic campaign which will take everyone into the deepest depths of Davokar itself and bring everyone face to face with the Darkness at the heart of Symbaroum.

It should be noted that you won't get to set foot in Davokar itself for quite some time, after all, you've got to get to Ambria first...

About the System

There are two versions of the Symbaroum ruleset. The original Symbaroum rules, and the more recent 5e hack "Ruins of Symbaroum". Here we will be using the original ruleset and not the 5e version. If you have the 'Ruins of Symbaroum' books, then the background setting information should still be relevant, but the game mechanics will be completely different.

About Me

I've been a member here on MW since 2019 but have been playing RPGs since the early days of Red-Box D&D. I've played numerous games over the years ranging from classics like Traveller, D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia (to name but a few), to more modern systems like The One Ring, Ironsworn and Lex Arcana. Like many, I played with a regular group when younger and at college, but over the years as people moved away and time pressures increased I found that the group fell apart and never got replaced. So I've been playing PbP here (or on a couple of other sites) or solo games for a long, long time.

The setting for Symbaroum really grabbed me, and as it's a somewhat niche system, I've not seem games crop up so far, hence my attempt here to actually run the thing. This will be my first foray into GMing a PbP game, and only my second or third foray into GMing period. So go easy on me if I stumble along the way.

Posting Expectations

I expect to be making two posts a week to keep the story moving, so would expect that from the players as well. That said however, I do tend to check into the site most days (often multiple times per day) so if players do post more frequently then I'm not averse to increasing the pace where needed. We all know though that real-life gets in the way, so if you can't post for any reason for an extended period, then simply drop an OOC message (or DM me) to let me know and I can NPC your character for the period.

Recruitment

I'm looking for three or four players to begin with - we'll be running through the starter adventure from the Core Rulebook entitled "The Promised Land" if you're interested, then please post character concepts, etc in the Characters forum here.