The Morning Realm
14rd Sign of Rocs, 270 IE
Scope
The motivation behind building The Morning Realm
The Morning Realm is built for my DnD players.
- I want to use the building blocks provided by DnD in interesting ways.
- I want to embrace fantasy tropes and the conceits of fantasy stories.
- Prioritize depth over originality
The goal of the project
In the end I want a world that feels rich, alive and evocative.
I want my players to experience personal highs and lows, and see the world and the people around them at their grimiest and their best.
The Morning Realm's Unique Selling point
The Morning Realm is a classic fantasy world. Castles and forts dot the landscapes, an undead army rises to the west, gods watch over the people.
The goal isn't to reinvent the wheel, but to tell the story of what that really meant to people. Empathy is key to the worldbuilding of the Morning Realm.
Theme
Genre
This is a High Fantasy world. Magic is common, and the gods are undeniably present.
The technology and inspirations are an eclectic mix ranging from classical times up to early modern times, focusing more on what makes sense for the setting than accurately capturing a single time period.
Reader Experience
The world should feel like home, but more like your first apartment in the big city, away from your family. A place where you'll find new communities that embrace parts of you that you haven't gotten to explore before.
Reader Tone
Ultimately the Morning Realm is a hopeful and bright world. There are bittersweet moments and occasionally even dark ones, but those are there to make the victory of good feel earned.
The worst characters should be delightfully evil, and fun to take down. Their crimes should be awful, but any atrocities should be firmly fantastical; like raising undead.
Compassion should not be rare. The elderly, the unfirm and the poor should be taken care of and not destitute and desperate.
Recurring Themes
- Coming of Age
- Found Family
- Companionship as Salvation
- Illusion of Power
- Disillusion
Character Agency
DnD without player agency should just be a book instead. The players are given the opportunity to help develop the world, and their characters actions should help shape the story. While there is an overarching narrative, it is the players who decide how to go about things and when.
Drama
- The Theocracy of Krorus has declared war upon the rest of the world. They are all to happy to look the other way as they rapidly expand through the Lichen Marches Marches, their armies swelling with undead.
- The Castellite High Queen was just assassinated with very same poisonous poisonous dye that has been trafficked through the Sewers. Many of her closest advisors have been seen with purple-tinted lips as of late. Now her son, barely twelve years, has accepted responsibilites and burdens no child should have to bear.
I'm no longer working on the Morning Realm, but I'm leaving it up for anyone who is still interested in my past work. If you want to see what I'm currently working on, check out Solaris!
The Morning Realm is written and illustrated by Annie Stein.
The Morning Realm is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.