Using This World

This world supports play in two eras, and each offers a different kind of campaign.

The Era of Partage. A living god holds half of humanity through magic. Opposing him is an island of wealthy, divided, secretive exiled wizards. Between them stand dwarves who sell gold to everyone and barbarians who want no money at all. This is the era of intrigue: rival families, magical contracts, espionage, commerce, and wizard duels. The world is closed, its monsters belong to it, and every question is ultimately political.

The Free Era. The god has been dead for twenty years. The seal is broken, and things are entering through the gaps. Living legends have become overwhelmed kings with no time to spare. This is the frontier era: planar incursions, portals, ruins of a divine empire to plunder, and an entire continent to rebuild. A band of novices has an obvious reason to matter because the powerful are occupied elsewhere.

Everything else—the five paths of magic, gold that stores mana, dwarven castes, Valerium, alchemy, and the great families—belongs equally to both eras.

The names in this book are anchors, not obligations. A table that wants the world without its established characters can keep the institutions—the Council of Mages, the Academy, the castes, censors, and clans—and fill them with its own people. A table that wants to play through Archon's fall rather than inherit its consequences can simply stop the chronology before the war. Everything before it stands on its own.