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Title: Etravar Description: bss's high fantasy campaign setting, a world of adventuring and discovery.
Etravar
Etravar is bss's home campaign setting, a universe of high fantasy, setting adventuring and discovery against the backdrop of points of light in the wilderness and the forgotten legacy of lost eras. It is meant to be a rich, varying world, where any type of adventure can occur among its many continents and regions, most of which haven't (in game terms) been written of or described yet.
History
Creation
In the beginning, The One Beyond spawned three goddesses out of the endless nothingness --- the twin sisters Nydia, goddess of light and Dysthia, goddess of darkness, and Etra, goddess of existence. The twin sisters both coveted domain over Etra, and waged a bitter war, bringing about the light of the stars and the darkness of the void, creating the universe. As they sparred over eons, their wounds shed their essence and, merging with that of Etra's, created the planes, including the material plane which is (inaccurately) considered to be Etra herself. The war between the sisters also brought forth the Etran pantheon --- darkness and light combining chaotically to produce divine concepts of sun, moon, life, death, and so on --- countless immortal forces that shape the universe.
Civilization
There is no agreed upon definition --- or even guess --- of the age of the world, or life on Etra. Contemporary scholars believe there are at least one hundred millennia of empires rising and falling that have shaped the world, but this is as much a guess as any previous attempt to estimate the age of Etra. This belief holds that in those lost ages, multiple progenitor species native to Etra gave rise to great civilizations before disappearing from the record of time, be it by gradual decline, war, leaving for other worlds, or so on. Little is known about these progenitors and their cultures other than the undocumented relics and ruins left behind.
The oldest known history is owned by the elves and dwarves, both ancient ancestries in their own right. They shaped the lands above and below long before humankind rose to prominence, and in a way shaped the ecology of Etra itself --- their vast cities and dungeons have become part of the world's genetic memory, and it naturally spawns weird dungeons, corrupted or blessed plazas, and the like. The living world creates not just flora and fauna, but also grand towers and abominable strongholds.
It is claimed by some that an immense magical calamity brought about by the elves and dwarves brought Etra --- both the world and the goddess --- to the brink of annihilation, with this symbiosis of "manmade" constructs its/her only chance at survival, but both cultures' leaders and scholars vehemently reject such slander.
The Material Plane
The world of Etravar is known as Etra based on the goddess's influence and divine history, and consists of five primary continents, each separated from the other by large oceans. Travel between the continents is quite rare, but not unknown; due to their relative isolation, their histories and culture tend to differ, and even the recognized pantheon can vary as some deities are known by multiple names or unknown in a region entirely.
Trezuria
Trezuria is a long continent, spanning most of the latitudes, leading to a diverse climate over its span. It is roughly divided into a north and south Trezuria, split by a vast mountain range in the middle that runs from ocean to ocean.
Magitech has started to flourish in south Trezuria, as mages and artificers have driven rapid advances in machines and rituals in the largest cities, and those advances have begun to spread throughout the continent. Natural borders and uninhabited lands have been the primary impediment to a rapid spread of magitech to the rest of Etra, but these advances have not come without detractors.
Peoples
The sapient species that compose the people of Etra come in a wide variety --- human-like or not --- and are further distinguished into various cultures, kin, and ethnicities based on their home region, shared traditions, flavor of religion, and so on. Humans, elves, and dwarves combined make up a rough majority in Etra, but there is no clear dominant species nor supermajority among the peoples of the world. Though isolated lands and cultures exist, it is not unusual for most groups to maintain a mix of types of people. Within the forgotten lands, it is possible that even the progenitors still live.
Religion
Hundreds of major and minor deities fill the Etran pantheon, and most life activities and ideas are either directly represented in a a deity's portfolio, or have a patron associated with a deity. Commonfolk rarely devote themselves to only one deity, rather making prayers and pleas to the deities representing the trials and blessings of day-to-day life. Clerics and paladins of a particular god are the notable exception, but even as they call on the power of the deity that grants their power, they will readily say a prayer to an allied deity.
Despite their role in creating the unknown universe, the Three Sisters (Nydia, Dysthia, and Etra) have no particular dominance or hierarchial role in the Etran pantheon.
Themes Gaming in Etravar
- The universe is a wide assortment of planes, including forces of law/chaos, good/evil, and light/dark, connected via an astral plane.
- Magic is common but not commonly-practiced, and is nearly limitless in potential.
- Magical corruption has warped the land and perhaps life itself, causing an ebb and flow of strange phenomena, essentially limitless in scope.
- Casting magic can be learned, divinely bestowed, or inherent.
- Civilization ranges from hunter tribes to grand metropolises, points of light with much uncharted territory in between.
- The world is old, many civilizations have risen and fallen.
- The world itself is magical, and not strictly bound by natural law.
- Humans, elves, and dwarves are most common among civilized lands, but plenty of other sapient species show up.