Enter the Arcverse
The Knowing
"What brought you to me?" asked the voice.
"Knowing that I could not live if I did not find you," shouted Rhoande, "...something inside me called me on, something powerful."
"I believe the word is Fate." the voice replied, echoing off the walls of the great chamber that had appeared aroudn Rhoande moments earlier.
Rhoande stood up slowly from where she had been crouched, still holding her sword.
"You can put your weapon away, you will not need it here," said the voice as the air shimmered and began to take material form. A tall woman with flowing white hair and long elegant blue robes appeared before Rhoande, who instinctively bowed.
"No need for that either," the being said, "...You may call may Tauruphan, I am the keeper of this place, and this place is the very extension of me. We are made of the same energy, Rhoande, and when you came here I was awoken."
Silent tears coursed down Rhoande's face making tracks in the dirt on her skin. A lifetime of yearning had brought her here. That deep, buried sense of longing that had gnawed away at her waking thoughts and haunted her dreams had sent her in search of answers. She had wandered across wildernesses and through cities for years finding clues and scraps of information, her desperation driving her on. When she heard about a network of caves in the mountains above Lake Haren she had almost given up hope, the journey into the darkness had been her last roll of the dice.
"We have work to do," said Tauruphan, "...the energies within you demand to be put to some purpose, and you have enemies do you not?"
"I have a few," she whispered, drying her eyes with the back of her hand, "...a few."
"We have spells to forge," said Tauruphin, waving her hand. The air glowed with ancient Old Vannic sigils which she reached out and touched, "...spells for forge and power to discover."
Welcome to the Arcverse, where the story of Rhoande, and of countless other spellforgers will be told. Nobody knows who the first mortal to be touched by Fate was, their name and their voice is lost in the shifting mists of the past. Each generation of new Fate touched mortals brings the rest of the world closer and closer to one seminal revelation:
Magic has returned.
If you are here, brave traveller, it means that you have entered the Arcverse, where spells aren't learned they are forged.
If you haven't started your Spellforging journey yet you can begin with our free starter set
here. You can find all of our base classes, caster add ons and character origins (races) here, along with our Spellforging system.
Classes
Caster add ons
- The Vowbinder
- The Tomebearer
- The Fateweaver
Character Origins (races)
- Human
- Half Fey
- Half Firg
- Chorale
- Jaraki
- Gnomi
- Atrushki
- Suraian
- Kairoi
This World Anvil is the deep guide to the Arclands Universe that you can find in our core books:
Arclands: The Spellforgers Companion
The Book of the Graces
Arclands for 5th Edition
Arclands is a 5th Edition compatible campaign world brought to you by
Verse Online. Arclands is a fantasy setting in the five dimensions of the Arcverses, where magic has recently returned following the death of the one god The Keeper and a time of terrible catastrophes known as the Sundering.
Across the continent of
Aestis, the lords of nine great cities and ten outer kingdoms plot and conspire against one another, forming shifting alliances to secure dominance over the lands surrounding the Greater Arc Sea, known as the Arclands.
This is but one small part of a wider reality, a tiny fragment of the Mortal Realm, one of five known dimensions, peopled by humans, their giant neighbours the Firg (found in
The Firg Lands) the almost completely vanished ethereal folk of the woodlands, the Fey, the amphibian Jaraki and the mysterious psychic mutants The Chorale. Human societies face a world on the brink of total transformation, with most refusing to recognise four basic realities:
The Keeper is gone
Three centuries ago Aestis was blighted with the most terrible strife, war, famine and chaos as the power of the one god, the Keeper, finally collapsed. For millennia, Aestians had worshipped the Keeper as the one god of their world and his death was a terrible trauma that some have refused to accept. The Aruhvian Church, ruled by the three Archimandrites of
Gol,
Dancare and
Arc have attempted to hold the faithful together but the brutal and puritanical city of
Skaris now presents itself as the home of the true faith during these troubled times. In the meantime many Aestians hope that some kind of spiritual order will reassert itself in the future.
Magic has returned to the world
Aestians for generations had lived their lives believing that the Keeper was the controller of all magical power in the universe and whilst it might exist, it was not for mortals to meddle with. Indeed, for many of the faithful of the Aruhvian religion, the idea that a mortal could wield magic was tantamount to a heresy. Now mortals who are touched with the spark of divine fire from the Keeper have learned to harness Spellforges and create their own magic. There are no magical libraries or schools, only wandering adventurers and scholars, seeking out the forges.
Humans are not alone
The world that humanity thought it owned and shared only partially with the giant Firg folk is now a very contested place. With the gradual awakening of the Fey folk and the amphibian Jaraki, the rat like Ryvvik and others, human beings are slowly adjusting to the strange and the unexpected being part of their lives.
Doorways to other worlds are opening
One reason why folk from
Harenis to
Oloris are quickly learning to adapt to these new circumstances and embrace their non human neighbours and potential allies, is because rumours of far more terrifying creatures now abound. It is becoming clear to humans and non humans alike that the doorways between realities are opening, along with tears in the fabric of the multiverse. Through these doorways, the enemies of all mortal life slowly crawl, with their own terrible agendas and designs. The time for all Arclanders, human and non human to unite is at hand.
Arclands: The Spellforgers Companion
Arclands: The Spellforgers Companion is Verse Online's guide for DMs and Players on role playing in Aestis and includes a radical new magic mechanic - Spellforging - which gives players complete creative control over spell and magic item design and creation. In a world where magic is new and largely unknown, players can't learn magic from schools or academies or buy magic items in shops. Instead they must create every power they wield. You can get your copy of the Spellforgers Companion
here
Comments