Pagilae

"Now look here, young one. Do you see this?" The child nodded slowly, looking down mournfully at the feather. The old man started again, "The bird is fragile and fleeting. It's life passes it by quicker than the ground that it soars over." The child looked up with strands of tears in his eyes. "No tears now, child. Now, observe."

The elder reached in and drew from his pocket a well polished rose-steel cube. "Now look here. In his fear of the time nature allow him, he created this. Rose-steel does not fade, it does not rust, it does not wear. The man has established his legacy forever. Take it, child." The man pressed the cube into the boy's hand and folded his fingers over it. The child looked up. "It's cold," he said. The old man smiled, a well used, well worn smile. "Yes," he said. "It's very cold." A shiver suddenly took him. The child dropped the cube and seized his hand. The shiver stopped and the old man gently opened his eyes.

"Then, child, there is this." The man whistled an airy warble and a bird flew from it's cage. It circled the top of the room in a perfect circle before alighting on the man's outstretched finger. It's golden talons gripped lightly the perch; it's rose-steel beak preened it's silver feather.

"Magic and Machine: The Combined Powers of Man and Nature," the old man smiled. "They are yours child. Many generations of man have endeavored to bring them together. Now, you must decide what it to be done with them."

The bird hopped from the old man's fingers as he expired, perhaps sensing the extinguishing of the heartbeat. The child was ushered from the room as the nurses came to removed the body, the priest came to perform prayers, and the family came to weep. The child and automatonic bird were left alone in the spotless halls of the hospital, alone to resolve the conflicts of nature and man.

Pagilae is a steampunk world mainly focused on the development of technology within established, mostly human settlements, where the effects of wild magic and human ingenuity have clashed to form conflict and progress over several ages of alternating tyranny and freedom. Vast spaces of unsettled land and areas of major interest make this setting preferable to new and experienced players who are looking for a simple, action packed urban campaign or a long term, exploratory adventure in the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition setting.