Ereacia

It is the year 103 of the Third Interregnum, and the world is changing. Barely a century after the cataclysm known as the Godsflood ended the Third Empire, old nations have been renewed and newcomers are arising to challenge them. In a world reeling from the shock that ended a golden age that would last forever, many are the changes that it brings. Savage raiders from the East known as Utlenders came in the disaster’s wake, settling the now-barren lands of the Imperial capital province. Simmering discontent with the powerful Church of the Children of God has been brought to a boil by the Godsflood, leading to dissenting preachers forming their own clandestine Filian Chantry as a rival. With the dominance of the Empire gone in the North, the Principality of Arlesia has emerged from beneath its shadow, seizing opportunity for a golden age of arts, politics and sciences. Change brings uncertainty and opportunity, hand in hand, as the certainty of the old and familiar is gone. The world needs heroes to protect what is valuable while blazing a new trail in a new chapter for the continent.

  Welcome to Ereacia, our continent for this campaign! Though I originally created it just to be a simple setting to play with some of my online friends, it has developed into a more detailed and in some ways unusual setting. One of its key features is its more medieval worldfeel compared to the standard D&D world. People are more superstitious and their attitudes are defined by tradition, history and religion. This is largely due to the presence of the Faith of the Children of God or Filianism, a dominant organised monotheistic religion that has many similarities to Christianity. The Filian Church looks much like the medieval Catholic Church – it has a single head (the Filiarch ), a hierarchy, saints (adapted version of classic D&D gods) and an elaborate liturgy. It is also a political power unto itself, playing a leading role in the history of the continent. Almost everyone on Ereacia is Filian, with the exception of the tribal Kalnozeme Confederacy and the Eastern part of the Utlender invaders. The Church, however, has become increasingly controversial, leading to the rise of the Filian Chantry, a radical version which has abjured all those trappings to return to the simplicity of the faith.   Tied to the whole religious aspect is the cosmology. The Material Realm in which Ereacia is situated has but one planar neighbour: the Immortal Realms, or the Otherworld. The Immortal Realms are ever-changing and weirdly cyclical, a realm of constant Creation in which death is not present in the same way. According to myth, it is from the Immortal Realms that the Children of God, the races of the Material Realm, were exiled to a realm in which life was paired with death, a Once-Created realm of linear time in which everything had its end. The Otherworld contains all the aspects of most other planes such as the Feywild, the Shadowfell, elemental and outer planes. It is the source of magic, and where the two worlds touch, it is possible to pass over from one realm to the other.   The history of Ereacia has been defined by cycles of Empire and Interregnum in the north of the continent. Even though the South, where this campaign starts, has never been part of the Empire, its dominant presence has shaped their history as well. The Third Empire was a golden age for Ereacia, which the Church proclaimed would last forever – but the cataclysm known as the Godsflood, which submerged the capital of Altanius and turned the once-fertiled Capital Province to an unnatural and harsh icy clime, ended it all the same. Nobody knows what caused the Godsflood, but a lot of people claim to know. The Chantry blames the Church. Some in the Westgauen whisper that the Granite Magisters of Cadaemar brought on this doom. Enlightened thinkers in Arlesia say the passing of the Empire is but the first step in the dawn of a new era, and that the Empire simply collapsed under its own weight. Whatever the reason for it, the world is changing as Arlesia enters a golden age, the Chantry challenges the Church, and the fragments in the North shatter further.

Campaigns

• Oloward the Magnificent and the Faithful Five: In the disunited region of Hespial, where we start our campaign, the change is felt as the great powers jostle for influence. We’re in for a campaign of deep politics and religion, intrigue and adventure. Welcome to Ereacia.
• Certified Really Awesome Party: In the Abbey Lordship of Oberdorf in a remote corner of the Westgauen, a group of heroes finds themselves at the centre of strange events...