Welcome to Barsaive

Welcome to Earthdawn

The Scourge may be over, but there are still dangers lurking in the darker corners of the land. Not all of them are Horror.
•T’lanthyn the Talespinner •

Once, long ago, the land grew lush and green. Thriving forests sheltered plants and animals. It was an age remembered today in the echoes of myth and legend. Magic was a part of life itself, filling the world and allowing people to grow and prosper off the land’s bounty. Then the Horrors came, and drowned the world in darkness.
The world’s flow of magic rose and at its height dread creatures from the depths of astral space crossed into our world, leaving suffering and destruction in their wake. They laid our world to waste in a terrible time known as the Scourge. Lush forests died. Bustling towns vanished. Beautiful grasslands and majestic mountains became blasted, barren terrain, home to the Horrors’ twisted mockery of life.
The Horrors lusted to destroy all life, but they did not succeed. Before their coming, the magicians of the Theran Empire warned the world. The people of the Earth took shelter in fantastic underground cities called kaers; their descendents grew up within these earthen enclaves, never seeing the light of the sun. For four hundred years the Horrors roamed the land, devouring all they touched while people hid in terror.
Eventually the slow ebb of the world’s magic forced these loathsome creatures to retreat to the astral pit that spawned them. The people emerged slowly from their kaers, half in hope that the Scourge had truly ended and half in fear that the Horrors lingered. Though most of the Horrors have left the world, many remain, inflicting anguish and suffering on other living creatures. As humanity struggles to remake the shattered world, they must combat the remaining Horrors who seek to prolong the destruction and despair of the Scourge.
Now heroes travel the land, rediscovering its lost legends and exploring its changed face. For the world has changed, almost beyond recognition. Many people died during the Scourge; the Horrors breached some kaers and destroyed their inhabitants. Other kaers remain sealed, from disaster or simple fear; their contents await discovery by bold explorers. Should they find folk still living within, these brave adventurers may lead such fear-darkened souls out to live again in the light. In the Age of Legend, heroes band together to fight the Horrors and reclaim the wounded world for those born in it. As they search the altered land for legendary cities and lost treasures, they become the legends that will light the coming days. Tales of their deeds will live forever in people’s hearts. Heroes come to join in common cause from many paths. They come from many Disciplines, seeking honor and glory, and battle evil to redeem the world. A band of heroes may include an Illusionist, a magician who combines deception and reality to confuse those around him; a Swordmaster, trained in the art of fighting with melee weapons; or a Beastmaster, able to train and command the beasts of earth and sky.
The world holds countless heroes, but all share one trait: a willingness to fight to reclaim the world from that which threatens it. Through noble deeds and sacrifice, the heroes of the world will forge its future.