The Hook: Adventures in Requerm!

The world of Requerm is an anomaly wrapped in an enigma and then eaten by an even larger anomaly. Evidence of a lost civilization, known nowadays as The First Civilization, or "Those That Came Before," litter the realm with lost ruins, ancient artifacts, and many more questions than answers. No one really knows what happened to these apparently advanced people, simply referring to their disappearance as "The Fall of the First Civilization," or "The Fall" for short. The few tribal villages that exist to this day have little to no connection to this ancient civilization, instead focusing on their own survival in a dangerous land riddled with powerful beasts known as Great Beasts . Regardless of the mystery, these burning questions about their origins have generally been put on the backburner, since they are usually the least of anyone's concerns these days.   See, 50 years ago, a bizarre event took place, warping various people, seemingly randomly, from various planes of existence within the multiverse, shoving them all into the same, nearly uninhabited world. This event would later be known as The Dawn , the mark of a new era in Requerm where many foreigners from many different cultures were forced to suddenly coexist. Needless to say, this birthed much conflict, eventually wrapping the entire region within a decades-long struggle known as The Unification Wars .   After all the chaos subsided, the newfound King Darius Quintus founded the The Kingdom of Krakonia , emphasizing education and exploration to allow for as much prosperity as possible, but more importantly, to learn about the many secrets that Requerm still hides to this day. As part of this effort, Quintus revived an ancient tavern from the First Civilization called The Hook , and began licensing adventurers to go on official behest quests for the kingdom to explore this strange land and uncover its many secrets.   Ever since The Dawn, more and more people of various planes of existence continue to warp randomly into Requerm, an anomaly people call the Effects of the Dawn. Something notable about these individuals is that even when coming from the same plane, they sometimes are from very different time periods. No pattern has been recognized for how individuals are chosen for the Effects of the Dawn, baffling scholars for the past five decades.   The only significant hint is that some individuals are given mysterious marks on their bodies. Whether they are transported to Requerm or born here is irrelevant, although no one from other worlds had these marks before appearing in Requerm. This is considered one of the biggest leads. Many with the mark live on to lead impressive lives in many different fields, including powerful warriors, expert scholars, beautiful performers, master thieves, etc, leading many different beliefs to form about them. These marked individuals have since been given many different names, but the common one most recognized in Krakonia is Arbiters   Regardless of backstory, all player characters in The Hook: Adventures in Requerm! are granted this mark, and have elected to become officially licensed adventurers in Krakonia. The campaign is intended to be open-world in nature, allowing for many opportunities for players' roleplay/choices to drive the story forward. Due to the format of the campaign, I, as the GM, am keeping information about the campaign public on World Anvil, although it should be considered a private campaign in terms of participation. Those interested in following the events of the campaign need only keep up with this world as the players progress through the story. Additionally, The Hook is a Typed Campaign , meaning all canon actions and dialogue are typed into our roll20 chat. Details on specifics for how a campaign like this run can be found in the previous link.   For players: Start with the Character Creation/Advancement page. If you don't read any other article on this website, at least read that one.   A brief disclaimer on copyright: I generally don't own any of the pictures used in this campaign, and don't hold copyright on any of them. I don't really anticipate this being an issue for a nonprofit Pathfinder campaign made for fun for my friends, but since this campaign world is publicly available, it should be said nonetheless. If for whatever reason you find this campaign and object to your property being used, simply let me know and I will replace it. It should also be quite clear from the homebrew that I have taken direct inspiration from several pre-existing franchises, notably the Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, The Elder Scrolls, and Monster Hunter series. Other series may become relevant as well as the campaign carries on. I'm fairly certain this all falls under fair use, but I'm no lawyer, so I'm being as transparent as I can be here.