Foreword

[[[Need a foreword; Zeb Cook?]]]

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Introduction
People flee the chaos of the Old Country, seeking
refuge wherever they might find it. For centuries,
the Weird Wizard cast a shadow from the east, his
mere presence deterrent enough to keep explorers
and settlers from venturing too far beyond the
borderlands that stood between the so-called new
lands and those of enlightenment, culture, law, and
order. Some saw him as a dark wizard, a mad
sorcerer who had at his command eldritch powers
of staggering might. As proof, one only has to look
at all the abominations he set loose in the lands—
the weird hybrid beasts, the multi-legged, hulking
collectors, the floating eyes that would hang in the
air, trailing their nerve endings, making no move
other than to observe and, presumably, transmit
what they saw to their maker. And then, far, far to
the east rose the walls of the Forbidden City and
the clockwork peoples who dwelled there in
seeming servitude to the dread mage who ruled
over all the east.
But the Weird Wizard is gone. His shadow
remains, but the figure casting it has disappeared
and no one, not even his closest servants know
where he went. That his absence coincided with
the bloody civil war that tore the Great Kingdom
apart and that precipitated the violent struggle
between the other nations in the west, might be
coincidence, or the Weird Wizard might have had
some stabilizing influence that enabled civilization
to flourish once more in the aftermath of a far
older, nastier decline.
Either way, the instability sends people by the
thousands spilling into the borderlands and as this
territory grows more and more crowded, refugees
beginning looking to the east to make their homes.
The first forays into the strange place have ended
with disappearances and death, and the few
people to have returned have done so telling tales
of hostile inhabitants, cruel faeries, and hideous,
ravenous monsters. If the new lands would be
settled, there must be peace with the inhabitants
and the land must be tamed.
Such efforts demand heroes. Luckily, there
might just be a few around.

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Ten True Things
founding. The present year is 1342 KE, with the
“KE” meaning Kingdom Era.

You might find it helpful to digest the following

basic truths about the world and its inhabitants. Magic is Real
Most have had at least a brush with magic. The
Familiar but traveling magician might supplement sleight of
hand with a cantrip or two to amaze and astound

Different the audience. Everyone knows about the wizards

who declare themselves authorities on magic and
Erth shares much in common with our own world. he druids who pull the strings on which everyone
One finds forests and mountains, rolling plains, seems to dance or curious mechanical people
seas, rivers, oceans, and every other type of terrain known as clockworks who behave as those of flesh
imaginable. The Sun rises in the east and sets in and blood even though they have bodies of iron,
the west. Erth has a single moon that moves brass, and ceramic. Magic is just part of life on
through four phases each month. Stars form Erth.
constellations in the night sky and one can usually Magic might be commonplace, but few
pick out the wandering stars, which some believes understand it. Wise people approach magic with
are other worlds. There are important differences, the caution it deserves. More than a thousand
however, many of which are described in greater years have passed since the old empire fell into
detail below. ruin and everyone knows that magic played a part
Humans share the world with many other in that nation’s collapse. Plus, angering a witch
sentient peoples—dwarfs, faeries, clockworks, who can turn you into a toad or a wizard who can
dragonets, and more. Since the differences call down a mountain to wipe out your town is
between the ancestries go far beyond the minor never a good idea.
cosmetic details that make the people of a
particular ancestry distinct, such differences form
no impediment to members of a particular Developing
community. In other words, people don’t pay
attention to skin color, gender, or other physical Technology
factors when considering who belongs and who It might seem strange to read that technology has
doesn’t. The same is not always true between reached the cusp of creating wonders rivaling that
members of different ancestries. of magic, when magic exists and anyone with the
For every animal and plant found in the real time, talent, and inclination can learn how to cast
world, there’s a similar, if not the same, species on spells. But people look for ways to improve their
Erth and, for simplicity, naming conventions lives, to make easier the work they must do to get
remain the same. A bear is a bear and an oak tree by and thus people turn to their own ingenuity to
is an oak tree. Erth’s magical nature enables other serve their needs when magic is simply not
species to thrive where even considering their available. Swelling populations, greater demands
existence would be preposterous. Thus, talking for food and resources saw technological
animals, hybrid beasts that combine the forms of a innovations all across the Old Country, sewing
multitude of creatures, floating eyeballs, living machinery, harvesters, diggers, and other marvels
statues, and more share the lands with the as well. Unfortunately, many of these devices
familiar. remains in the Old Country, abandoned in the wars
Finally, the world has a similar method for time or repurposed to carry out atrocities. Refugees
keeping, using months, days, hours, minutes, and have had to rely on the old methods for farming,
seconds. Each day lasts 24 hours and a week has building, and cultivating their land, but some
seven days—Sunday, Moonday, Skyday, Midweek, bright minds have escaped the violence and in
Highday, Revelday, and Restings, which them is the hope that what was lost can be found
correspond to the familiar days of the week. Each once more.
month has four weeks, and a year has thirteen
months. The people of the Old Country and
borderlands use the Queen’s Calendar for tracking
the years from the time of the Great Kingdom’s

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The Gods Exist
Must Not Be Spoken to languish in the
Netherworld, a place deeper, cosmologically
People worship beings called gods and give their speaking, than even the Underworld. The sacred
devotion to these gods in return for intervening in writings of the High One claim that people who
the destinies created for them by the Fates—gods live in the light, who remain pure of spirit, might
who decide the outcomes of each living thing the be chosen to ascend and dwell with the Redeemer
moment they come into this world. The gods can for all time.
change fate and circumstances, so people believe,
and thus mortals court them, offer prayers to
them, make sacrifices, and do all they can to curry The Ancient Ones
favor to avoid suffering, want, and delay the
inevitable end that awaits all. Sleep
There’s little doubt that gods exist. Many people Lord Death wrested Erth from the Ancient Ones,
have seen them in the world. The Horned Lord and proto-deities sometimes called the titans, in a
Wild Woman have both been spotted roaming in cataclysmic battle that might have rent the world
the woodlands. At dawn, one might see Mother asunder. Victory might have slipped from his grasp
Sun stretch her arms across the sky, and most had he not turned several of these beings to his
people have seen Sky Father’s wrathful face in the side, urging them to turn against their fellows and
storms that spill across the heavens. rule creation as equals. The titans who fell to these
There is doubt, though. No one doubts the gods were cast down in the heart of the world and
existence of these beings. Some do, however, wrapped in the chains of their brother titan, the
doubt the gods’ ability to change fate, the extent of god known as Draconus who coils around the
their powers, their origins, and the entirety of world, holding fast his kin in an adamantine grasp.
their purpose in the world. As one might expect, The Ancient Ones have come to haunt the
doubt leads some to wonder if these beings mortal imagination as monstrous, elder beings of
deserve the attention they receive. grave might and destructive aspect. Their names
and the means for calling on their power have

Mortal been lost thanks to the efforts of both the Cult of

the Last Door—Lord Death’s religion—and the

Reincarnation
Church of the High One, but some people see the
fate of the Ancient Ones as being symbolic of all
According to the priests, Lord Death gave the gift the evil of unchecked authority and there are
of life to Erth, but with that gift came a weighty some who would awaken them, release them, and
debt, one paid by the fact of death. All mortals usher in some new age. So deluded are these
must die so that they can live again. When a mortal individuals that they even believe that the Ancient
dies, its soul, freighted with memories and Ones would somehow change everything for the
emotions, sinks into the Underworld where it better, though it’s far more likely that they would
bides its time until its identity fades away. Only brush off the mortal infestation before getting
then, once cleaned of who the soul once was, can it down to the business of getting revenge.
be born again into new flesh. One might think that
people would be a bit more cavalier about dying,
since they have it on good authority that they will The First Peoples
come back, but never underestimate the hold The mortals came into a world already crowded
living has, how strongly people cling to their selves with peoples, a world with a history written in the
and what terrors oblivion holds. blood of war, conquest, ruination, and tragedy. The
The cycle of birth-death-rebirth had been the eldest peoples are believed to have been the
natural order of things since mortals forever, or so elementals, beings formed by the Ancient Ones
Lord Death’s priests claim, but the coming of the presumably to populate the Erth, though some old
High One changed everything. The High One came stories suggest that they were in part responsible
to spare mortals—particularly humans—from for its creation. They were later joined by the
oblivion by preparing a place for the worthy souls immortal peoples, souls who formed bodies of
to ascend to Paradise, a place of peace and beauty. creation’s stuff. Some became the faeries, those
The High One defeated the darkness, called the capricious peoples who now live in the places
Adversary, and flung down the God Whose Name between, others became the trolls once a cunning,

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brilliant people whose bitterness turned them to drowned in the darkness of the Void. Whoever he
evil, while others became monstrous thing, some was, he established the east as his dominion and
of which still trouble the world today. threatened annihilation to any nation that would
These early peoples fell victim to many of the challenge his rule.
same conflicts that have torn apart the mortal Over the last centuries, the Weird Wizard has
peoples. At first the faeries and trolls fought become something of a boogey man, and people
against the elementals for dominion of creation place at his doorstep all the ills in the world. A bad
and then turned against each other, until the trolls growing season? The Wizard is taking all of our
were so diminished, they fled into the wild places, rain. An earthquake? The Wizard is going for a
and the faeries, sickened by the blood and death, walk. Some blame him for the falling of the stars,
fashioned for themselves the realms of faerie, the appearance of the fiery stars that hang in the
where most live unto this day. Of the elementals, skies for days at a time, the trouble between
they have clashed with the mortals time and time nations, the monsters that sometimes tumble out
again, but have been so reduced that they too have of his shadowed realm, and just about anything for
ceded their territory and bide their time until they which anyone might have a grievance.
can rise up and reclaim Erth for themselves. But then, he left. No one knows when he
vanished, not exactly. Not even the clockworks

Fallen Empires who have maintained his palace in the Forbidden

City know the day or the hour. One day, he was
The troubles plaguing the Old Country are in no present. The next, he was gone.
way new or unique. The Great Kingdom, the Speculation abounds. Perhaps he went back to
mightiest of the nations in that realm grew from the place from which he came. Maybe the gods had
the ashes of the Empire, which in turn grew from had enough and sealed him away with the Ancient
the wreckage of earlier nations. Time and time Ones. He might have died from loneliness, a
again, civilizations form, prosper for a time, broken heart, or been killed by a great hero. No
become sick with decadence and corruption, and one knows and he’s left few clues.
fall. It has happened so many times, some believe The Weird Wizard’s absence has resulted in the
that the falls are an inevitable part of every nation, opening of the new lands to the rest of the world, a
no matter how noble, egalitarian, or good those troubling situation for the native people who have
nations might be. long lived under his rule—centaurs, wargs, and
Now is a time when people must fend for others. Some explorers report incredible vistas,
themselves, they must set aside the petty places that seem to violate every law of reality,
differences and come together in order to save such as a mountain that reaches all the way up to
themselves from the myriad dangers all around the stars, a river of rocks that flows like a waterfall
them. It’s possible that the troubles in the west into a bottomless abyss. There are structures with
might resolve themselves and some new order no means of ingress and whose function defies
might emerge, but each wave of fleeing people definition. Odd islands of stone that drift among
bring worse and worse news—entire nations the clouds, mushroom forests, with growths as tall
falling victim to the soul sickness that turns as the trees, and so much more. It is a place ripe
ordinary folk into orcs, necromancers leading for exploration, but it is also a place that shifts and
armies of undead, and the ever-present threat changes, that has no intention of being pinned
from the old empire, the teeming masses of down. The new lands are quite old, mysterious,
warped, misshapen abominations spawned by the and now invite those from all over to discover its
chaos magic that ravages that land. secrets.

The Weird Wizard’s A Time for Heroes

Now is the time for bold heroes to find their
Shadow destinies, to shape the future through the strength
The Weird Wizard appeared in the east nearly a of their arms, the keenness of their minds, and the
thousand years ago. Some legends hold that he fell will to survive. Rebuilding after the collapse
from the stars, a fallen god cast down by Lord occupies most people’s time; they have no choice
Death himself. Others claim he was a traveler from but to clear the land, plant crops, and raise
another world, a world similar to this one, but one livestock. Here and there, communities start to
take shape, but a great many perish before they