Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild

Drake's Dozen

29th Yidzan 157 AB

Created by

AS Lindsey (Pan)

Scope

The motivation behind building Drake's Dozen

Primarily a setting for novels. Also an excuse for me to ~~waste~~ spend time delving into research on languages and people and history and technology and mythology.

The goal of the project

An encompassing setting for an anthology series of novels, other works of fiction, and TTRPG campaigns.

Drake's Dozen's Unique Selling point

An industrial-era world on the brink of a second revolution thanks to the spread of extraplanar magic, still reeling from the effects of a global war that occured almost 200 years ago and ended with a mysterious, magical cataclysm.

People are learning that anyone has the potential to be anyone and do anything, which is a big deal in a world heavily fractured by racism and classism.

While these conflicts are breaking out on a global scale, other beings on a universal scale are pulling centuries-long strings and pushing people into place like cosmic chess pieces.

Theme

Genre

Fantasy.

More specifically, low-magic industrial-era fantasy with elements of eldritch horror lurking in the background.

Reader Experience

The world is cruel and unfair for most people, but also vast and beautiful.

Reader Tone

Depending on where you look, you can find elements of good and evil, law and chaos, agency and powerlessness.

Overall, Bleakglow - the world is dark and indifferent for most people, but occasionally individuals and groups make a step forward.

Recurring Themes

Nurture is stronger than nature
Magic and technology are coexisting tools
Nothing is absolute. Context matters

Character Agency

People are usually not able to affect the world with long-lasting effects, but every individual has the potential to be that one person that does change the world.

Focus

Race/Class relations:

Since the Great War, most people in the world find it difficult not to associate other species with negative feelings and experiences, especially those who were alive a couple of hundred years ago. In addition, entering a global era means people are coming into contact with other species and races that they didn't even know existed.

Power:

How do people act when they have spent their lives being told they are superior to other people by virtue of birth?

How do people act when suddenly given the opportunity to have magical or political power, when they've had a lifetime of being told they are worthless?

How do groups of people treat the knowledge of power in a world where ancient wars still live fresh in some people?

Extraplanar influence:

Even if many people today are unaware of it, their world has always been at a centre of a cosmic web. People and creatures have been planning and preparing for millenia; the reintroduction of magic in the world comes with the reintroduction of these old, powerful beings.

Drama

Old Scars:

157 years ago, the major people of the world first encountered each other and entered into a huge world war. This only ended because of The Blink, and not because either side wanted to broker peace.

No-one knows who or what caused it or why. Many people assume it was one of the other species for some still-unknown reason.

Innovation:

The rise of both technology and magic means better exploration of the world. While two continents waged war hundreds of years ago, a third continent with its own peoples has only just become known to the rest of the world.

Living in isolation without war and magic, these Monoduga have made incredible technological advancements. Just what are they working on, and how will it affect the rest of the world?

Revenants:

Since the Blink, some people have randomly returned to life after they should have died, often shunned and cast out of their homes. No-one quite knows how to treat people that want to retain basic living rights indefinitely.

Magic:

For centuries, the Vena have protected knowledge of magic in Azhjur University, reserving it for a tiny fraction of people with the lifespan and money to afford it.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that the vena aren't the only people who can channel extraplanar magic, and they're finding it increasingly difficult to maintain control.

Do they continue to hoard magical knowledge and let amateurs experiment with huge consequences, or do they share the knowledge with people that may well turn out to be their enemies in another global war?

Proudly powered by

All art by Pan unless otherwise stated.