Morgrave
117 S
Scope
The motivation behind building Morgrave
My motivation for building this world is to create a unique setting for my DnD campaign.
The goal of the project
I hope to a create a horror-lite dark fantasy campaign with an emphasis on crafting, archaeology, and exploration.
Morgrave's Unique Selling point
A marriage of Lovecraft and heroic fantasy. A world in flux where player actions can have lasting consequences.
Theme
Genre
Dark Fantasy,
Lovecraftian,
Early renaissance/late medieval tech
Reader Experience
The material world should feel lightly dark and low fantasy at all times. Any time something glorious happens, it was probably orchestrated for personal gain.
Reader Tone
Moderately dark. It's not hard to survive in the cities, though they have their share of disease and corruption. The more rural you get, the less this becomes a problem, but the more prone you are to beasts or raids by bandits or national enemies.
Miracles can happen in Morgrave, but people tend to be victim to cruel fate more than happy chance.
Recurring Themes
Survival in a dark world
Discovery of unknown truths
Achieving greatness of heretofore unknown proportions
Character Agency
Players have a lot of possible agency, but they will need to work toward any bigger changes they want to make.
Focus
Drama
The scourge of Hymbra are getting out of control. Daily, people are turning into horrific beasts and stalking the nation. The most affected areas are the cities of Hymbra and the battlefields between Hymbra and Qemt'Or. The king of Hymbra is hiring mercenaries to cleanse his cities of the scourge. Without aid, there's no telling how bad it will get or even if Hymbra will survive.
Lustria settled a colony on the island of Cartouche a generation ago. Recently, all contact has been lost with the settlements. Any attempts to investigate have not returned. What could be going on Cartouche?
The people of Morgrave know nothing about this point. However, off their northwestern shores lies Cedar Isle, home to 3 peoples vying for control of the island. Rock/paper/scissors style weaknesses prevent any 1 faction from taking over, but growing national boundaries and populations are pressuring decisive action.
East of Krag-a-Krach lies the badlands. At the center of the badlands lies the silent volcano of Kruzzagh-Dri-Suzzach or "Bald-Three-Peaks" in Lustrian. Kruzzagh has become less silent of late. Earthquakes wrack the badlands and a constant dirty storm rages over the fuming volcano. The oligarchs of Krag-a-Krach want to know what's going on on their back doorstep.
The emperor of Qemt'Or once ruled with military might and intimidation. However, the Qemti recently lost a huge swath of land to the blitz attack of the Hymbrans. Their army made it within a few days' march of the Qemti capital before an outbreak of scourge forced the Hymbran army back. Rumor has it that some of the myriad tiny kingdoms, chiefdoms, oligarchies, etc. that make up Qemt'Or aren't so impressed with their central government any more. Intrigue abound in the empire of a thousand peoples; do you dare insert yourself into the political mire?
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