Erden

Welcome, weary travellers, to Erden: a dark fantasy setting for a number of DnD campaigns.   The skalds and soothsayers teach us that it was the hubris of elves that cursed us. For our continent is a grim and ancient place, haunted by the machinations of baleful deities. Our land has witnessed the rise and fall of uncounted realms, an endless cycle of achievement, strife and ignorance that has turned for ten long millennia.   Long ago, the high elves created a god in their own image: Sanguine. But in her they poured their arrogance, their malice, and their lust for power. Though the elves overthrew her and thought her defeated, she retreated into the deep places of the world and became a god of blood and rage, even as the world was plunged into a terrible Age of Ice and the mortal races were pushed to the brink of extinction. Over the long millennia that followed, Sanguine wrought havoc on the world time and time again, being defeated each time, but also becoming stronger with each Cycle. New gods rose and fell with the turning of the millennia.   At the end of the last cycle, the most powerful of our shamans succeeded in summoning Tyr, the glorious protector of the world. As the skalds recite, Tyr defeated Sanguine once more, and the people of the north took their first steps towards glory. The Holmgardian Empire eventually emerged, claiming to hold dominion over all of Humanity, but this did not last. Now, the Empire lays fractured, the Khazak dwarves have retreated into their mountain fastness, and a new Dark Age has begun.   To the north of Holmgard, ancient tribes of humans battle with orcs for supremacy over the frigid wastelands, performing blood sacrifice to give favor to the Old Gods. Across the Sea of Blades to the south, in the arid continent of Goriad, the Republic of Paxtria stands as a cosmopolitan jewel, attracting all races and spreading the faith of Kelemvor to distant lands. To the east, the great Kingdoms of the high elves stand witness to an endless sea and unknown lands beyond.   But from the west, only feverish rumors reach the lands of Humanity. Refugees tell of a dark power rising, of vampire hordes, of lands of mist and eternal damnation. They tell of the final rise of Sanguine - of the End of the Cycle. Time will tell whether these rumors have any truth to them.