Age of Change - A Remnant of Hope
"Age of Change - A Remnant of Hope" is a chronicle started at May 18th 2023 wich got finished after one season at octobre 4th 2023. The story takes place at the dark continent of Vethros and in the timeline it is a direct sequel to the chronicles "Age of Conquest - Fall of the Gods", "Age of Conquest - The Calamity of Dragons" and "Age of Change - The Aspect of Space". As such it is the fourth installment in the cosmology of the world of Arceiron.
The campaign setting is loosely based on the official "Grim Hollow" Setting from publisher Ghostfire Gaming and the described world of "Etharis", adapted to fit into the world and cosmology of Arceiron. A lot of themes of the original setting got taken and also got combined with some ideas of their own. In difference to the other chronicles, which got played in Arceiron before, the campaign has more elements of Dark Fantasy then the traditional High Fantasy (which are involved too, just to some lesser decree) and as such it is much darker in tone.
The story takes place in the fictional world of Arceiron, on the dark continent of Vethros, a land, which formerly got controlled from some old and long forgotten gods, a long time ago. But horrors from beyond the cosmos and out of the dark erased the gods from existence in a conflict, known as the "God's End War". The mortal populace of Vethros got left on a continent, fallen in despair and darkness, consumed from dark powers. While the former lieutenants of the gods, the so called Seraphs and their enemies, the Archdemons, fight for the light and control over the destiny of the land itself, the mortals have to fight their own battles and wars, mostly between the Bürgach Empire and the Vostoyan Empire, the latter controlled by dark Vampires from the shadows. But other organizations are seeking for power and influence too and so discord and conflict are daily business. The Holy Church of the Hearthkeepers and the Arcanist Inquisition try to use the fear of the mortals to manipulate and control them and dark terrors are up to hunt and consume the souls of the living to damn them in all eternity. It is a dark and sinister world, where hope is rare and heroism the most precious of all treasures.
Plot Summary
Season I
From the darkness they come (Chapter 1 - 17)
The story begins in the small town of Whitebridge in the southeast of the Bürgach Empire, near the Rock-Teeth Mountains. Nearby the village is the old landlord graveyard under control of the ominous House Ashbane, where some of the townsfolk recently want to have seen a mysterious, ghostly figure. Rumors say, that this might be the Ghost of the "First Hunter" himself, a legendary, but long dead figure. The fear of some type of curse leads the Burgomaster of the village to search for some brave adventurers, which are about to find out the truth about the graveyard and put this old ghost back to slumber. Beside Lorin Gragg, a local adventurer and monster hunter, which makes him prominent among the villagers, other hunters and mercenaries arrived in town, called on by the promise of payment, fame or some sense of noble justice. There is the drow huntress Cassandra Larynde, which search for traces of her lost husband, the Zalvari Rose, which is on a journey to fulfill her destiny and pass the trials, which got brought upon her, the scholar Nevara, which also inhabits unknown, but dangerous dark powers and the mysterious one armed wanderer and swordsman Ronan Arcadius, a cursed warrior, with some old pagan rune powers to his use.
The first evening, after they met in the tavern of Whitebridge and banded together for this mission, they meet a mysterious man, only known in legends as "The Jester" which bring forth some ominous prophecy. He speaks of five different adventurers, which are about to change Vethros and who are destined to bring back some light into the darkness of this land. And so a new group is born, inofficially known as "The Remnants". a fellowship of unequal beings, with highly different goals and morality, but a shared destiny.
This new group of adventurers visits the graveyard the next day and they not only met the ghost of the first hunter himself, but also find the reason for his return into the world of the living: some cultists trying to sacrifice a luminous being, which they are finally able to rescue. They also meet Lady Eleonora Ashbane, a noble woman living in a estate in the woods, with her family name being part of a lot of horror stories and tales of darkness. She supports the group to find out, that this mysterious being, called by the name of Lumia, might be a Seraph and also an enemy to the cosmic beings Celesh-Vorn and her lieutenant, a creature called He Who Walks in Shadows, banished from the world of the living a long time ago by the first hunter himself.
Since it seems obvious, that the old enemies of the world wants to return, the new band of adventurers plans to bring Lumia back to consciousness, since she has fallen into a coma after the stopped ritual. With the support of Lady Ashbane, who wants to take charge in political activities of the region once more, something she had withdraw herself a long time ago, the group started their travel to Vollendorf to buy some ingredients to heal the luminous creature and wake her up. In the city itself they got brought into political conflict with Lord Baldric Schafer, who sends the adventurers on a mission to clean the woods from the illness inside, known as the Tears of the Hungerer, which spreads like a pandemic through the countryside. Only if this get stopped, he wants to meet Lady Ashbane and discuss the political problems of the land and the recently happened invasion of Lady Valyra Blackfist and her armies into the southeastern borderlands.
The group managed to find the core of the illness and destroy the mad Zalvari Siva, which is a follower of Celesh-Vorn and got promised, that the forests would be cleansed from humans soon enough. She got killed and the adventurers stopped the infection of the woods. After returning to Vollendorf, they meet Lord Elias Ashbane, the brother of Eleonora and got involved into the family problems of House Ashbane even more. After they made a deal with the Ashbane family, which even got personal for some of the adventurers like Lorin, who hoped to safe his hometown from the invaders of House Blackfist, they return to Vollendorf to convince Baldric Schafer to finally meet with the nobles and discuss a solution to free the land from mortal invaders of foreign families and cultists of forgotten beings alike.
Back in Vollendorf, they got to investigate some runic murders, which lead them on the trail of the traitor Roland Schafer and a dark fragment of the mighty Wizard Lorena D'Avenier, created by He Who Walks in Shadows himself. The dark entity plans to return into the world of the living with the help of Celesh-Vorn's cultits. Since a while they murdered people to create an avatar for the dark being to call him in at the Night of Nightmares. The adventurers once more banded together with Elias Ashbane after they found out about the plans and when the Night of Nightmares finally came they stand united against the cultists, their allies and their leaders. With the help of the members of House Ashbane, which revealed themselves as vampires before, they finally stopped the ritual from happening and destroyed most of the cultists in Vollendorf. In the aftermath of the victory, using the momentum of him being weakened, the Remnants also traveled to the pocket dimension of Lorena D'Avenier to attack He Who Walks in Shadows and drive him out of that place once and for all. Finally they were able to destroy his form and send him back into the Far Realm, ending his schemes, plans and machinations for the time being.
But this victory might be just a flickering of hope in a world of darkness and maybe is also short-lived, since Celesh-Vorn is still out there and when she returns one day, the mortals of the realm will be lost to damnation and despair...
Protagonists
Current Protagonists
Rose
(Zalvari, Shaman, Archetyp of the Witch Doctor)A Zalvari from the southern forests of the continent, away from the Bürgach Empire. She was born or "awakened" into a tribe of her poeple in the forests of the Charneault Kingdom and lived among them, sharing a culture of deep bonding. She got trained as a Shaman to connect with the spirits of the natural world, so one day she's able to take the position as leader of her tribe, succeeding her mother. For that reason she finally left her tribe and start her journey to pass the trials, which got brought upon her, before she is prepared to fulfill her destiny. Rose has no idea, what this trials are, but she's sure, that she will find out, when the time has come. She also got some strange dreams in the past about a war in Vethros, so she knows, that she have to act and can't stay behind. Rose is an open minded and curious individual, which wants to learn more of the behaviours of other species, especially humans and elves. Many of the things, other beings have trouble with, are no problem to Rose (the concept of dying for example means something completly different to her) and she is fascinated about seeing different aspects of other cultures and wants to learn as most as possible from them. Rose can manipulate the spirits of nature and control them to use their powers to her advantage. She also has strong healing powers and is able to heal wounds of her comrades in a matter of seconds, which makes her a very useful ally against the horrible creatures in Vethros.
Nevara
(Thoralian Human, Sorceress, Archetyp of Shadow Magic)A young scholar, which learned her arts from the fabled Wizard academy of the Ravencourt Sanctuary in the Vostoyan Empire. Because of her magical talents she got hunted by the Arcanist Inquisition most of her life and is always in fear of getting found by this fanatical hunters. She's on the journey to learn more about the world, making notes and so often enough is just observing others. Nevara is a kind soul, calm and friendly and prefer not to stay in the center of attraction. She's wise for her young age, but still has a lot to learn. Most people would not believe, that Nevara is able to stand her own, since she not looks like a warrior or a great Sorcerer and is more nondescript. But beside her talents for the Arcane, Nevara also inherits some strange powers of darkness, she adapted after she got lost from society a whole year, having no memories about this timespan and no idea, what happened to her. After she returned into her life, she was able to control and manipulate darkness itself, which since allows her, to often easily get the upper hand in conflicts. She never was able to find out, what these powers are and sometimes even is in fear of them, but she knows, that this makes her even stronger then being some normal wizard. She travels through the land with the hope, that she will find the answers about her "gift" on this journey and walks a fine path to show the world, that she is not some type of monster, but a kind person with an ability, that could change the destiny of Vethros for the better.
Ronan Arcadius
(Thoralian Human, Fighter, Archetyp of the Rune Knight)A mysterious swordsman and one armed wanderer, who travels through Vethros since a long time and uses his gigantic sword "Daracross" to fight evil and bring back hope to the mortals of the realm. He is an heretic against the church and the teachings of the seraphs, which often leads to the people being in fear of him or openly hate and despise him. He was formerly part of a group of Zealots, widely known as "Roseblood", which vanished under mysterious circumstances. Only Ronan was left behind of this zealots, physically broken and mentally scarred. So got his left arm infected with some horrible curse, the so called "curse of the wailing dead", which brings him unbearable pain every moment of his being. Not much is known about his former life, but he travels the Bürgach Empire a long time now and fights tireless to rekindle the hope in the heart of the populace of the land, believing, that only the strength of the mortals can bring real change to Vethros and forge some better future for all of them. There are many mysteries about the wanderer and some legends and rumors even say, he got touched with some old, pagan wicker magic which is, beside his enormous physical strength, the only reason he's still around to travel and fight.
Cassandra Larynde
(Drow, Ranger, Archetyp of the Gloomstalker)A huntress from the elven territory of the Charneault Kingdom. Grewn up in the matriarchal and also martial society of her people, where only strength is a sign of power, Cassandra is hard, determined and tireless, when it comes to reach her goals. Since she lost the person, she loved the most, her fiance Nalfayn, through the hands of the undead, she took up the gigantic crossbow of his family without their permission, left her people behind and since then travels the land to find a trace, what happened to him and bring him back home. But with every day passing there's fewer hope to find him and so it seems more and more, the undead have taken everything from Cassandra she loved, which is the reason, she hates them with deep fervor. Her hatred for the undead had grown so much, they even became her archenemies and she use every opportunity to destroy them. With the help of Rose she finally found a single hand of Nalfayn, the only trace, that he still might be there outside in the wilderness. With uncertainty in her heart, what really happened to her beloved one, a fact, that more and more makes her mentally unstable and is about to drive her into madness and rage, she fights with her crossbow to reveal his fate and make peace with it, while the same time becoming a true nemesis to the undead and destroy as much of them, as she can, on the furious road to revenge.
Former Protagonists
Lorin Gragg
(Thoralian Human, Monster Hunter, Hunter's Guild of the Carver) A young and ambitious man originating from the small town of Whitebridge, where he grew up as the only son of the village's gravekeeper. When it was time to choose his own profession, he became the student of Sybil, a wandering monster huntress and learned her arts, which brought him great honor and a good reputation in the small village. He travels the land to fight monstrous beings and bring safety to the people, which need him the most. He's also always up to learn more about the creatures of the dark continent and to fill up his grimoire with knowledge. One of his most intense hunts had changed Lorin's life, infecting him with some type of parasite, a small remnant of the creature he and Sybil killed. Lorin let, in the aftermath of the battle, some healer taking care of the parasite and he hoped deeply, that he got rid of the infection completly. He also one day met a man named Wind, which made him a present: a small pipe, which later got revealed to be a "treasure of the watchers". Get this treasure means a great destiny, because it selects Lorin to replace the former owner as part of the watchers of hope, which he not knew in the first place, when he accepted this gift. From this point on Lorin had no other choice then to prepare for the new task and burden, he got on his shoulders to safe his hometown, his people and maybe all of the land itself. After the confrontation with the dark fragment of Lorena D'Avenier in Vollendorf, where he and his friends nearly got killed and with the dark creatures becoming stronger even more, Lorin realized, that the parasite, he hoped to got rid of, still was inside of him and whispers into his ear, made it harder and harder to resist the constant urging of bring death and destruction. Finally he had to leave his new friends, the Remnants, to find a way to cleanse himself from that being inside of him once and for all. Otherwise he not only would become a threat to his friends, but also would risk to become a danger for the whole land, driven into madness by the dark creatures and controlled by some supernatural entity. He set on a lonely path to free his body, mind and soul and vanished into the darkness. Only time will show, if Lorin is able to stay on the righteous path of humanity or give into the depravity and madness and become the thing, he vowed to destroy before.Trivia
Popcultural References
There are no references of the popculture included into the chronicle until this day.Crossover
There are no crossovers yet between this chronicle and others of the same universe.Behind the Scenes
- The general tone of the chronicle and many of the elements included originating from the "Grim Hollow" Campaignsetting of the publisher Ghostfire Gaming and the continent of "Etharis", presented in this setting. With variations this have become Vethros in the World of Arceiron.
- To bring the very different player characters together into a fellowship right from the beginning, the premise for the characters at their creation was, that everyone of them has a connection to at least two of the others. This made the beginning of the story much easier and helped to build up a functional group right from the start. It also was the reason, the characters had some relationships inside the group to begin with.
- These chronicle was the first in the universe of Arceiron, which is more of a "Dark Fantasy" Setting, then the more traditional and common "High Fantasy".
- At the start of the chronicle Nevara is the only one of the player characters, which still is part of a faction. The others started all without a faction, but with the premise to join one of them later in the story, if the opportunity is given.
- The story sets part in the year 3174 AoM (which is the 4th year of the newly started Age of Change in the Timeline of Arceiron).
- Inside the chronicle there is a special type of currency, which got used. Instead of the normally used bronze, silver and gold coins, in Vethros they pay with "Bürgach Kronen" and the superior "Bürgach Goldkronen" in the lands of the Bürgach Empire, as well as "Vostoyan Kronen" and "Vostoyan Goldkronen" in the lands of the Vostoyan Empire.
- After tensions grew between the players and the DM after the first season about the way of continuation of the story, the tone of the setting itself and the evolvement of the characters, the chronicle finally got ended after a single season. There were much more seasons planned orginally and so the story is, at many points, unfinished. There were two more chapters played as the beginning of the second season, which got retconned to end the chronicle with the victory about He Who Walks in Shadows and with that finding a good ending point. What happened with the Remnants after they return into the world of the living is in-universe open now and not fully explained. It's not impossible, that they might return in another chronicle one day, but for now, their destiny is shrouded in complete mystery.
Player Characters
- Rose
- Nevara
- Ronan Arcadius
- Cassandra Larynde
Former Player Characters
- Lorin Gragg - Episode(s): 1-14
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