Belthuran
Scope
The motivation behind building Belthuran
This world has been something I've worked on for many years, parts of it being used in one-shots or smaller campaigns. It is only more recently that I have started to pull everything together and flesh out the full world.
The goal of the project
It is largely a passion project of mine but I do plan on eventually making a setting guide, I'd like to see it be used as a setting by many other groups for as many wild and interesting stories that can be told within it. I am using the setting to develop novels and TTRPG campaigns and adventure modules.
Belthuran's Unique Selling point
It is hard for me to pick a single hook that is different, the setting takes a deeper look into magic, it turns certain tropes on their head and embraces others. While not everything is grim and dark such things exist in the world contrasted by hope and beauty that can exist there too. I take great pride in seeing something from more established lore and tweaking it some to fit my narrative or just outright changing it.
Theme
Genre
This world is a high magic fantasy setting with a certain level of technology based around magic often referred to as Arcantech.
Reader Experience
To me, the world is a place of wonder filled with mysteries both ancient and present, a place filled with glory and horror for those who explore it. I hope those who explore it feel the same excitement when they explore something that I did creating it.
Reader Tone
The tone is somewhat malleable to the group currently playing in it, in my mind as the creator it is dark, not bleak like some settings as there is still hope and those who strive to improve things. Perhaps that makes it more Darklite or Medium roasted dark.
Recurring Themes
The power and mystery of the Arcane.
The bones of ancient glorious empires now diminished or destroyed.
There is more than meets the eye to nearly everything.
Challenges and tests to your morality, and how far you will go to stick to those morals, the only right answer being the one you can live with.
Rediscovering and rebuilding after a recent apocalypse level event, executed by a god but brought on by mortals.
Character Agency
The players are the main characters in the story, and while they will likely face opposition of varying degrees it is by their actions and desire that the world can be changed. The world still lives and breathes while they act though, and things they left undone may grow into something new be it better or worse.
Focus
Drama
Less than a hundred years ago the populations of the world were brought to near extinction by the wrath of the God of Vengeance, wrath spurred on by mortals. In this relatively short time, there are many who have forgotten what has happened even with those who lived through it still drawing breath. The countries of the world are just now able to start looking beyond the basic needs of their people to recement their claim on land the maps say is theirs. Those maps do little to warn of the dangers that have moved in, or grown out of control. This is a time for adventurers as there is much work to be done, places to explore, monsters to slay, and treasure to claim.
Rumblings among the magical communities have begun to notice a shift in the Arcane, an awakening within the energy of the world. What they sense is the rise of a god of the Arcane. That god's awakening has changed things about magic, the population of sorcerers is on the rise, and with them the enigmatic beings known as Terrorgheists linked to the sorcerer. Arcane Storms have become an occurrence, albeit a rare one. While magic has always helped the common person with basic needs like lights and minor medical care, the deeper mysteries, and oddities of magic have only become more terrifying to the common person.