Edda
October 1, 1334 A.C.
Scope
The motivation behind building Edda
I built this world for my first ever D&D campaign. I really like world building, and I wanted to come up with a special homebrew world that me and my players would enjoy.
The goal of the project
I'm mostly hoping to get some fun creativity out of it. I want to see where it goes, and how far I can get.
Theme
Genre
It is most definitely a fantasy genre with some dark fantasy elements to it.
Reader Experience
My hope is for this world to be interesting enough to draw in people's curiosity, and then for that curiosity to stay. I've really enjoyed making these articles and coming up with stuff for this campaign, and world that it is set in. If people enjoy it too then that is awesome! If they don't that's completely fine as well!
Reader Tone
The tone of this world is definitely some place in the middle. There are some dark and terrible things that happen, but there's also a lot of pleasant and good things that happen too. We all go through trials and difficulties of some sort, and the people in this world do too. But along with difficulties, are all of the average and happy moments in between. It just depends.
Drama
The Great Cataclysm: The Great Cataclysm is a world creating even that is believed by most races. No one is sure what caused it, but it was a merging of the elemental planes that resulted in the material plane being created. Each culture and race has their own creation story that involves the Cataclysm in some way.
The Calamity: Not to get confused with the Great Cataclysm. The Calamity was an apocalyptic event that shook the continent of Laurentia to its core. The face of the land was reshaped with the region of Thule sinking into the ocean. The remnants that were left behind ended up being the Skofnung Islands. In the southern part of the continent, just south of the Blue Woods, the land fractured as well, turning Rowland into a set of islands. After this event, the Kingdom of Borith vanished off the face of the earth. Leaving behind the Northern Wastes.
The Demon Kings: After the Calamity, ten powerful demon kings rose from the Abyss to lay waste and claim the Material Plane as theirs. Some think these dark powers made pacts with the kings of Borith to help bring the Calamity about so they may rise to power. These demon kings were: Balderic the Lord of Shadows, Bollmothog the Patriarch of Battle, Galvaker the Hallowed Baron, Hollow Lord Droggath, Mastramug the Herald of Blight, Morgrun the Apostle of Thunder, Wulfrun the Paragon of Fear, Karnun of the Corrupted Wyld, Fordwin Lord of Searing Flame, and Crom-Cruach the Bloody Crooked One. They moved throughout Laurentia seeking to bend the world to their will along with reshaping it in their image. All but two of the demon kings were killed by a band of mighty heroes. Even though their threat was eradicated, the demon kings still left their mark on the world, with consequences still felt into the present.
Vampire Menace: The demon kings were not the only thing the Calamity had brought about. Once the Kingdom of Borith was no more, the Northern Wastes had taken hold, and the Demon Kings had been slain, vampires crawled out of the shadows to take their place in the world. Scholars aren't sure if vampires had existed before the Calamity, or if they were a result of it. Regardless, a being known as Nosferatu emerged as the first vampire. They were united under his leadership until his untimely demise. After the Vampiric Civil War, the Vampiric Aristocracy was brought together by Conrad von Halter. Conrad sent the vampires forth the bring the world into the nightly fold until he was thwarted by a paladin named Irven Ward. Neither had been seen or heard from until now. Vampires have risen again under Conrad von Halter's leadership pushing south and making war upon the lands of the living. The elves and dwarves have united with the human kingdoms of Skofnung, Calanais, Dalraddia, Berwick, and Rheged to combat the vampire menace. The effort was spearheaded by an adventuring group known as the Guardsmen, who have been lending aid in uniting these kingdoms together and taking the fight to the undead.