Setting
That's Enoch's premise for this game, and it remains as-is. I think it's a great overview and setting.Enoch wrote:The Age of Legends has ended, and the Age of Man has taken its place. Once, many creatures and societies jostled for dominance; orcs warred against dwarves and elves, goblins preyed on the edges of every society, and creatures now called "monsters" lurked in the dark, built, fought, and died. Man was dangerous, but no more so than any other faction.
But that has changed. Mankind has won to a degree unthinkable for thousands of years, wiping out entire populations and enslaving the people and land. Man was fatally underestimated: they breed almost as fast as goblins, smith nearly as well as dwarves, learn not as deeply but faster than elves. More importantly, they bend the world to their vision, rather than molding themselves to it.
Human kingdoms now span the world, and lines on maps determine who belongs where--but there is no room for you on that map. Non-humans, as well as humans with strange powers or even strange accents, have no place here. You are hunted, despised, unwanted. True, there are a few towns and steadings willing to defy the Prince and give you succor, but not many, and not for long. You live on the benevolence of those Men raised on the Old Stories, and in those hidden places Man has yet to find.
And there are many: though Mankind may claim the world, they do not understand it, nor do they fully rule it. The land is dotted with ruined fortresses, hidden places of power, and more, where your people once built, and created works of wonder, and crafted treasures both magical and mundane. Treasures, perhaps, that could aid you in taking back what once was yours.
We opted for heavy themes of "this is where fairy tales came from" and "we're insurgents against the fascist sweep of humanity." Initial PCs/NPCs include the "true characters" for Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, the Huntsman, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Grimm the Storyteller, and Rumplestiltskin, with setting influence from the Shrek movies and other modern "not quite fairytale" adaptions. I intend to lean heavily into this. I encourage players to do the same, picking up Tropes and adding your own twist.
Places
The more humans take over, the less safe the world becomes for those that are "different." Inherent in Torchbearer is that we can't just live contentedly in town. For whatever reasons, we're on the road, trying to scrape a living from the wild places and ruins. The places that we've identified that are on the map as "safe enough to visit for town phase" are:
- Duloc, Capital City (Bustling Metropolis) [Clough]
- The Sacred Heart, Human Religious Bastion
- Seven Points, Busy Crossroads [Ganna the Witch]
- Remote Village [Tancred the Forsaken Ridder]
- The Sorcerer's Tower, a wizard tower (Sacked) [Rumple the Gnome, Haar the Halfling]
- Dwarf Halls
- Mountain Monestary of the Tree of Life (Druidic/Loremaster Religious Bastion)
- Elf Lands (Elf-Only)
- Evanora's Dingle (homeless shelter for magical creatures), a wizard tower [Grimm the Dwarf]
- Mountain Caves (goblin home)
The flavor for why we remain on the move changes as you move down that list from Human-controlled to otherwise:
- We're safe in the metropolis because they can't possibly police all the derelicts. But we might get spat on or confused for slaves, and we need to get on our way soon.
- We're safe in the busy crossroads and remote village because they're only nominally loyal to Prince Farquad. But people are nervous about getting caught (at best), and we need to get on our way soon.
- We're safe at the Dwarf Halls because we're allies in their impending battle, for they know Farquad will arrive soon. But they're suspicious and wary of traitors and spies; if we're not fully one of them we could be confused for an enemy and we need to get on our way soon.
- We're safe in Evanora's Dingle or the Elf Lands because they're the last hold-outs against Farquad. But people rely on the places being unfound and don't like vagabonds traipsing in and out, so we need to get on our way soon.
Religious Faith
There's some important stuff alluded to in the setting above and I want to make it explicit here because it is relevant to how we designed and will play our campaign.
First, Human Clerics, from the main rulebook:
Second, the primal Druids, from the Wanderers, Outcasts, and Exiles suppliment:Divine Power
Divine power in the world of Torchbearer consists of using a series of gestures and prayers to channel the primal power of the Immortal Lords who govern the workings of all things. The Lords concede these powers to their champions, clerics who further their cause in the world of mortals.
The Immortal Lords
The people rarely refer to gods, except perhaps in relation
to the Old Ones, the most ancient of immortals, who no
longer attend to Creation. Instead, they make obeisance to
the Lords, mortals who attained immortality through the
greatness of their deeds and the worship of others—kings,
queens, heroes and villains.
The Young Lords, those who have ascended in recent
memory, often retain their individuality and personality.
For instance, one hero might be worshipped as Sigrun the
Defender, the Lady of Battles who inspires soldiers who
fi ght for Law, standing between civilization and the ravening hordes of Chaos. But in the fullness of time, memory of the deeds and even names of these Young Lords fade. They shed their individuality and personality to become one with the primal forces they champion. Within a few generations, though worship of Sigrun may fade, she will become one with the Lords of Battle.
...the above text tells us pivotal information about our setting. The Age of Legends, when the natural order kept balance, it was Druids who knew divine power and maintained the consecrated Places of Power. In our setting, where you represent the old ways being threatened by humans, Druids are the primary religion.Druid
You belong to an ancient but dying order of nature priests and priestesses, followers of the Old Gods and the ancient ways. Your magic is the magic of blood, horn, feather, oak and stone. Your prayers are to the sea, the sun, the moon and the stars. The wilderness is your temple and you honor the spirits that call it their home. Until your order draws its last breath, you will continue to honor its traditions until you pass into history like the druids of eld. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Consecration
This ritual calls a host of spirits to gather at a place of power, establishing a new shrine in the wilderness.
This prayer must be invoked in a powerful natural space teeming with vital energy.
The location becomes a nature shrine for the duration of the dedication—see the rules for praying at a shrine. Shrines
may be renewed by any druid who successfully invokes the Sacrifice prayer. This renewal extends the lifespan of the shrine for another session, adventure or Winter, depending on the original duration. Failure to renew a shrine in time causes the spirits there to depart. High-ranking druids often send initiates on quests to re-consecrate old shrines every Spring.
The changing of the ages is pegged to the imbalanced ascendence of Humanity. The cleric description states that they believe the Old Gods no longer 'attend to Creation,' and that they are replaced by ascended humans, and they draw divine power directly from these Immortal Lords. This dichotomy of divine providence underlies the central conflict of this setting we created.
Mechanical differences:
- Human Clerics utilize the Theologian skill ("doctrine and the secrets of the Immortal Lords. They know the cosmology of the heavens and the hells, the ranks of the angels and demons, and even their hidden names.") and Druids utilize Lore Master ("Lore masters are the keepers of arcane knowledge and the deep mysteries. A lore master may plumb the secrets of the natural world to understand the workings of magician spells, recall forgotten lore")
- They both use the Ritualist skill to invoke divine powers.
- Because devils, angels, vampires, and undead are Theologian skills, they're going to have surged with the ascendence of Humans (and the corruption of human souls into other forms). Monsters and Eldritch horrors are Lore Master.
