Shadowfire
Year 81 of the Tempus Accord
Scope
Shadowfire's Unique Selling point
The core magical force that powers Shadowfire transforms pure desire of sentient beings into reality - with the stronger and more wide-spread the belief, the more impactful the change on reality.
This caused the anient Godling War and desitruction, that changed the world's rotation so that there is no longer a day or night cycke. One side of the world is a scrotched wastland under a burning sun, while the opposit frozen in eternal night.
Time has been warped, counted by the tides and the moons rather than the sun and seasons. The survival of the various peoples and creatures depends on them sharing or competing for resources with each other in ways both physical and metaphysical.
Theme
Genre
It is a semi-dark fantasy, with undertones of cosmic horror and sci fi. However, hope, duty and inclusion thrive across the cultures that struggle to survive through cooperation. The tone not to get too serious and desperate - it is also a world of opportunity and delight that people want to save.
Reader Experience
Both mystical and terrifying. Players/audience should want to seek the wonders of the world - be motivated to move and explore, learn and experiment.
Darkness and Light both seek to hide the true beauty of the world, which is cycles and change. I want the characters to be agents of this change in a world stuck. They must move, question the stasis, learn from the multiple points of view across Shadowfire.
Reader Tone
On the dark side, but there are places where hedonism, fun and frivolity rule. Wondrous things happen to those who seek them out.
Recurring Themes
- Control vs collaboration
- Stasis vs change
- Subjugation vs freedom
Character Agency
Characters can decide to live small lives, focussed on local issues, but there is global threats at play that can be uncovered, stalled, fixed, reversed or ignored. As a TTRPG, the stasis can be severely affected by PCs if they desire. Conflicts and challenges can be local, or global.
- Do they want to explore the reasons behind the Destruction and try to make it right?
- Are they locked in Shadowside and long to see the light of the sun? Or from Sunside and long for the light of the stars?
- Do they want to delve into the history and ruins?
- Do they want to seek out and connect the other cultures above and below the surface, for trade, cultural exchange, knowledge or power?
- Do they want to uncover the secrets of the Divine magics and become Godlings themselves through fame and worship of others?
Focus
Drama
The New Divinity and the Elder Gods
Belief and conviction manifests through magic to create the New Divinity. The New Gods are made real by collective will, and are slaves to this will. Mortal beings come to realise this truth and seek to harness it for good and ill.
The Elder Gods are kept apart from their creation and imprisoned by forces weakened by calamity.
A new world order of nations and powers is arising from the destruction of their ancestors, struggling to survive and dominate in a climate locked still in time.
There are ancient enmities, and new jealousies, prideful duty, an existential fear that people are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, and a yearning to be done with fear and embrace all the hedonistic joys of life while it lasts.
Struggles between those who fled and sought refuge in a protected magical plane of existence during the Destruction, with those left behind forever scarred over generations by cataclysm.
The destruction also set free remnants and minions of the Eldar Gods, the demon lords of fire and gluttony.
The world's core is fractured, and the magic that drives evolution of life and the divine along with it. it is unstable, and slowly ebbing away into chaos.
Time no longer flows like it should. The planet's surface a stasis of tectonic turmoil, volcanism and earthquakes. No cycles of seasons, or night and day. Just Sunside and Shadowside and the twilight between.
The heart of the fracture is a cataclysm frozen in time, and the magic of the world scattered and weakened.
The central deceit at the centre of the world's creation - known only by the long-lived Elderkin.
The world was created by the Eldar Gods to be farmed for food, like people farm crops. All life and magic originally existed for this purpose, until revolt and emancipation by the Eldarkin sent the Eldar Gods into their banishment.
The cosmic conflict at the core of all things: freedom for mortals or to become food for the Gods as intended.
Unless otherwise stated, all content and maps have been created by and are copyright to the world author, Ononomad (Tim Day).
