Seven Chains

It is said that each world must stand alone, but there are those who know the secret ways between realities.

Introduction

Welcome to Seven Chains, a role playing campaign run in the West Marches style. Players will have the chance to visit several worlds, each with its own unique setting. They will have the opportunity to pursue goals of their own choosing on any scale, be it a local village’s troubles with goblins, the clash of space-faring corporations, or a war over the laws that separate realities. Players can have multiple characters (to enable them to play in any faction) and can advance their personal stories at their own pace.

Explanation of the Setting

In the context of this game, a World (capital W) is a self-contained reality. It may be centered on one planet or many, but it is a closed system in terms of physical space. Every world has an immutable Natural Law set in place upon its creation, which is imposed upon any who enter the World from outside. You may find that magic works differently or not at all, or that a small variation in a World's physics affects the reliability of complex equipment. For this reason it can be risky to enter an unknown World without a few backup methods of breaking free from it. It is said that Dark Worlds exists, places where the nature of the Laws prohibit all known methods of egress from a World, forever trapping any Unbound who enter them.

A plane is a reality that intersects with one or more Worlds, created from the Laws that those Worlds hold in common. Unlike Realms, which are largely incidental convergences, planes are stable realities with an inherent and self-enforcing structure, albeit one far more limited than that of a World. They are often used as a means of travel between Worlds. Some planes, such as the plane of fire or the plan of water, intersect with nearly all know worlds. A plane will not make accommodations for the laws outsiders may need to survive, but if you can survive the conditions there it makes for a reliable pathway to anywhere you need to go.

Realms exist as part of the Inbetween. They are pseudo-realities that are shaped and defined by neighboring Worlds, or other outside forces. Their existence and internal nature could not exist in isolation. The natural laws of a Realm are mutable and fluid, and generally accommodate life and power of almost any kind. Realms are often home to unusual creatures and societies that could not comfortably exist amidst the iron-clad Laws of a World, though like all life they all came into being within one World or another.