PLAYER’S GUIDE TO THE TREASURE-TRAP SETTINGIntro and justification

At the OGM for the third term of the 2002-2003 year, we (the incoming ref team) said that we would be devoting no small amount of our time and attention to the mammoth task of organising and codifying TT’s setting. Over the summer, the Outer Planes were pinned down, the Races of the game world were described, just how the various forms of power work was figured out, the various magical materials were given origins and purposes, a Timeline for the game world was pieced together covering everything from the creation of the world to the present and the world itself was mapped. Some of this detailed setting information is available IC at the moment, some is slowly trickling out to the characters and some (like the Timeline) remains safely in the Ref Folder.

So, that has the highly detailed “this is the absolute truth” end covered. But that doesn’t help the new player trying to figure out where his character is from. It doesn’t help the player with a character from Durholme who hasn’t ever been told the basics about the city. A character doesn’t need to buy a book on all the races from the Keepers in order to know what a Tomtem is.

A certain baseline of information – what everyone of any education in the setting knows – is needed.

Hence this document.

This guide’s second purpose is to be – by popular demand – an aide to the non-Interactive ref who is contemplating writing an adventure and has nothing to “hook” their story on. If the characters are seeking an ancient artefact in a crumbling ruin, it helps to know who built that building, how that artefact might have been made and how old it is. And what country it’s in at the moment. And what races might be around.

Final point before we begin – This is not all the information available. The Ref Team remains ready, willing and able to describe anything in more detail should anyone want to know – a player wishing to come from one of the more obscure countries can have a info-dump on that nation, and adventure refs inquiring about the dating of something pertinent to their adventure can be enlightened. We’re not the Keepers. We don’t charge people for asking.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

TT is a shared game, and an almost unique thing in LRP – an ongoing campaign that has run for over a decade, in which the majority of participants cycle every three years. This has downsides – continuity is a nightmare, and the sheer amount of past detail finally necessitated something like these setting documents being written – but upsides as well: over the last twenty and a half years, some of the most creative minds in LRP have worked on TT’s gameworld.

So, a short and sadly in no way comprehensive list of everyone whose ideas, plotlines and backgrounds these documents attempt to manhandle into a cohesive whole:

Rod Millard, Tracy Selby, Adam Butler, Mark Potter, Owen Lewis, David “Gimbi” James, Gareth Bowen, Dave Selby, Sally Sharp, Jason Marchant, Andy James, Nick Bradbeer, Si Wright, Rob Pike, Ash, Toni Badnell, Rafe Richards, Rich Whitaker, Rich Steed, Dave Jones, Jen Tuer, Rosey Farish, Ben Hodgeson, Gareth Marklew, Andy Knighton, Daniel Williams, Si Childs, Ian Clay, Nathan Courtney, Ian Macredie, Al Macloed, Marios Richards, Zoe Robinson, Dave McKee, Matt Heath, Mark Potter, Sam Clayton and Steve Lewis.

There are doubtless many more that deserve to be up there.

WHAT TT IS NOT

TT is not The Lorien Trust.

Our world is flat, not a giant space dragon egg. “The Void” does not exist and – this is the biggie – TT rituals do not work anything like LT rituals. To the point of probably killing the character of anyone that makes that mistake.

TT is not D&D

Drow in TT are Darkness Elves, not spider-worshipping Goth rejects, and most of them aren’t Matriarchal. TT Gods don’t work like FR Gods and (bar a few name similarities) aren’t set up the same. Same goes for the races. TT Orcs are not D&D Orcs. The Outer Planes work nothing at all like the ones in D&D.

TT is not Medieval Durham

The Palatinate in TT is not even the same shape as the real-world Palatinate (it’s a metric butt-load bigger for a start).

TT is not Warhammer

Just as TT Orcs are not D&D Orcs, they definitely aren’t Warhammer Orks. And Vetch are NOT Skaven.

TT is not the real world

Urth is flat, not a globe. It’s geography – while broadly similar to the real world – is not a 100% match to our world. For starters, it’s quite a bit smaller. America does not exist. Australia does not exist. Africa has had the long bit hacksawed off.

WORDS AND TERMS

Aaracockra – Chimerae of Air, formed when a Qweniar child suffers something wrong in the formation of it’s Elemental soul. Resemble Qweniar crossed with Eagles, and live side-by-side their more usual Elven cousins in Air Elf communities.

Abyss – The mysterious and never-visited realm deep in Limbo that Demons come from. Often confused with Gehenna and/or Oblivion, but actually entirely separate.

Age of High Magic – The period in History stretching from –13 DR to 135 DR, in which the Mathmagician’s Cabal was active and Human civilisation reached what is considered to be it’s peak.

Age of Strife – The current period in history, in which the world is threatened on a near-yearly basis and calamities that would have come centuries apart in earlier times crash over the world in rapid succession.

Agypt – Human and Catkin Country based in the only remaining fertile area of the Sahara, along the banks of a river. Agypt was once the home of several Dragon Lords, and the country is dotted with their abandoned temples and complexes. Physically resembles Egypt.

Albion – 1) The Kingdom of Albion, formed towards the fall of the Roma Empire and destroyed by Orcish invasion in 136 DR. 2) The island on which the Kingdom of Albion stood, and with which TT is mostly concerned. Physically resembles Britain.

Alchemical Metal – A sort of “artificial Runemetal” made by alchemical processes acting on Silver. Not as capable as Runemetal in terms of spell-storage, but a close second for those that just can’t lay their hands on an ancient Atlantean artefact.

Alchemy – The art (and proto-science) of making “supernatural” effects by means of chemicals, barely understood ingredients and so forth. Most commonly used to produce Healing Potions, the only readily viable alternative to spiritual healing miracles.

Alkar – Common name for a Light Elemental.

Ancient Empire – The first entirely Human civilisation, and the longest-surviving realm on Urth. Physically resembles China.

Andalucia – A country of Elves, dominated by the Qwenia in a caste system and mostly made up of Light Elves and Earth Elves, that sits on the eastern side of Catalonia in the nearest area of dry land to the now-vanished Atlantis. Physically resembles Portugal.

Andrast – Northern Country in Albion, East of the Palatinate. Andrast has been invaded too many times in the last decade and is now a shattered, ruined kingdom barely able to feed it’s population and

given over to Orcs and Vetch in large areas. Physically resembles Cumbria, the Lake District and the Pennines.

Arcadia – Outer Plane that lies “beyond” the Dreaming in some way. Home to the Fae.

Astalon-Ziorbina – Goddess of Law, member of the Mace Pantheon. “Ziorbina” is the Goddess’ real name, “Astalon” being her (male) predecessor that was killed and replaced by a Demon just under a decade ago. The Goddess elected to use her forebear’s name to smooth the transition for his (now her) followers, and it stuck to the point that now all but pedantic Ishmundi call the goddess “Astalon”.

Atlantean Rebellion – 1) The Rebellion of the Elves and Dragons against the Val’ha’ruh, which culminated in the Ritual of Elemental Soul. 2) The separate, and later, rebellion of the Elemental Elves against their own king (whose particular subrace depends on which subrace is doing the telling) which culminated in the destruction of Atlantis

Atlantis – Homeland of the Elves and Dragons, an island-continent that was once to the West of Andalucia, in the Atlantic Ocean. Destroyed several millennia ago during the rebellion of the newly-Elemental Elves against their King.

Azrael – God of Death, member of the Sword Pantheon. Azraelites like to explain the difference between their God and Humact (with whom they have a mostly-friendly rivalry) as the difference between Death itself and Dying.

Bast – Goddess of Cats and Instinctive Behaviour, Member of the Sword Pantheon. Formerly subservient to Malar, Bast has emerged as the only “nature” Goddess left alive and has been busily extending her influence while emerging as the most rebellious of Vivamort’s “underlings”.

Bayazid – aka “The Scarlet Witch King”, the inventor of Necromancy and immortal Mathmagician-turned-liche who, after appearing and disappearing several times over the last few centuries, now rules the Highlands in the very North of Albion.

Beastkin – Human/Animal hybrids, created by a wide variety of means, some of which breed true and form small communities.

Bellaruss – Large Human Country in the North of the great Western landmass. Physically resembles Russia.

Besheba – “Dragon Lord of Urth Magic”; The Val’ha’ruh whose death marked the turn of the tide in the first Atlantean Rebellion, and whose spirit was bound into the Ring of Power.

Border Lands – Collective name for Durholme, Galantri and Andrast, as they form the “Border” between Greater Albion and the Pictlands.

Brigit – Goddess of Home and Protection, one of the Triplicity.

Burning Lands – Desert Realm, inhabited by Pyrokin. Physically resembles the Arabian Peninsula.

Cabal – The name the Human Mathmagicians in the Age of High Magic used to refer to themselves.

Cardyll – City-State in the South of what was Cymrija. Now part of the Kingdom of Greater Albion. Physically resembles Cardiff.

Carlisle – City-State in Andrast. Physically resembles the real-world city of the same name.

Catalonia – Human Country, dominated by a strong hereditary monarchy and worship of Mallan and the Light that takes up the large landmass west of Andalucia. Physically resembles Spain.

Catkin – Technically a Beastkin race, but have much greater numbers than usual and a known origin – created by Bast, goddess of Cats, as her favoured children – so are usually regarded as a separate race.

Centaur – Chimerae of Earth, formed when a Tomtem child suffers something wrong in the formation of it’s Elemental soul. Resemble Tomtem crossed with horses, and form their own forest-dwelling communities.

Chimera – An Elven child that, through some unknown means, has gained the lower body of an animal. Chimerae are treated differently by different Elven subraces, but are usually cast out of their parents’ communities and left to fend for themselves. No Chimera-form exists for High Elves, as the poor creatures that result cannot survive.

Circle – Incremental measure of a spell matrix’s complexity. In other words, the in character word for “level” when discussing spells (e.g. “Blackflash is a second-circle spell…”)

Circle of Balance – Twelve minor Gods, organised as six groups of “dualities” or opposing principles, that together form a collective God of Neutrality. Members of both Sword and Mace Pantheons.

Citadel Guard – Subset of the City Guard charged with guarding the Citadel and with being the Margrave / Seneschal’s Bodyguard.

City Council – The governing body of Durholme, made up of the heads of all the Guilds and chaired by the Margrave or Seneschal.

City Guard – Durholme’s small army of professional soldiers, supplemented by the Militia. Garrisoned along the Bailey.

City Watch – Durholme’s “Police”, loyal to the Prince Bishop (as opposed to the Margrave / Seneschal) and made up of volunteers.

Cold Iron – Not actually a type of Iron, but a white metal found in meteors. Heavily anti-magical, Cold Iron drains any Elemental or Astral energies it is in contact with away – it snuffs out spells, physically damages Fae and Elemental Elves / Dragons and is said to have adverse affects on ritual magic. Named “Cold” by the Dwarves because it’s melting temperature is so high as to be essentially unachievable (especially as you can’t use magic to heat it), meaning it can only be shaped by the long, slow process of beating and twisting it to shape by hand.

Cornish Princedom – Barbarian nation in southern Albion. Now part of the Kingdom of Greater Albion. Physically resembles Cornwall.

Corrigan – Current Margrave of Durholme, succumbing to old age after a long and distinguished career.

Crofter – God of Stoicism and the Lower Classes. Popular among the peasantry, and in agricultural areas that are frequently attacked by the various armies tearing up Albion. Member of the Sword Pantheon.

Crown – Durholme’s old (now out of circulation) currency. Abandoned in favour of the Wessex Schilling when the Devastation of Furnock wrecked Durholme’s economy.

Cymrija – A collection of feuding Princedoms in western Albion, now part of the Kingdom of Greater Albion. Physically resembles Wales.

Dark Ages – The period in history stretching from 136 DR (the Orc invasion that toppled Albion) to the near past.

Dark Dominius – Demon Lord of Tyranny and Political Machination. Killed by the Dragon Lords.Demon – Magical/Spiritual Entity from the Abyss, usually (but not always) harbouring a deep desire to destroy the Prime Material. Summoned by Demonologists due to their habit of granting powers to their followers. Some Demons take up residence on Planes nearer to Urth than their native Abyss, and appear to be more “socialised” – the longer a Demon stays away from it’s home, the more like a “real” being it becomes.

Demonology – The study of Demons (as opposed to Demonidolatry – the worship of Demons – though almost no-one knows the difference)

Devastation of Furnock – The event in which the Demon Furnock razed Durholme to the ground in a firestorm. Durholme – once a mighty power in the North – has never managed to fully recover and the rebuilding continues to this day.

DR – Durholme Reckoning. The dating system used by countries in Albion, which takes as it’s zero date the building of the Mathmagician’s Tower.

Dragon – Giant flying intelligent reptiles, which come in True and Elemental varieties. All Dragons are extremely rare, cunning and powerful.

Dragon Lords – Common name for the Val’ha’ruh, taken from their control of True Dragons.

Dreaming – The Metaplane in which sentient minds rest when asleep. Gateway to Arcadia and other, stranger realms of thought, memory and folklore.

Drider – Chimerae of Darkness, formed when a Drow child suffers something wrong in the formation of it’s Elemental soul. Resemble Drow crossed with Spiders, and are kept by their parent communities in “Driderpits” on lower levels of the Underdark.

Drow – 1) Elemental Elves of Darkness. Underdark-dwelling and highly fractured along the lines of “Houses”, each devoted to a different Elemental Titan. 2) The Elvish word for “Unclean”.

Durholme – City-State in North-East Albion built around the Mathmagician’s tower, now rebuilding after being virtually destroyed in the Devastation of Furnock. The primary setting of TT, Durholme is technically a Theocracy of the Circle of Balance led by the Prince Bishop, but in practice is governed by the Margrave/Seneschal and his or her City Council.

Dwarf – Race of short-statured master artisans from Roma, and former overlords of Urth, now in severe decline after the collapse of their Empire.

Element – One of Six Energies that make up the physical universe. Light, Darkness, Earth, Air, Fire and Water. All six mixed in equal proportion are sometimes referred to as “Grey”, but this is simply a shorthand and not a true Element.

Elemental – A being native to one of the Elemental Planes, classified in increasing order of size as Sprites, Imps, Small Elementals, Medium Elementals, Large Elementals, Huge elementals, Elemental Colossi, Elemental Titans and Elemental Lords. The smaller Elementals are barely sentient, the very largest are equal to any God in power and intelligence.

Elemental Dragon – A Dragon who fought on the side of the rebels in the first Atlantean Rebellion and took part in the Ritual of Elemental Soul, transforming into one of six subraces (one for each Element), or the descendent of such a Dragon. Elemental Dragons make up the minority of Dragonkind.

Elemental Elf – The Descendent of an Elf who fought on the side of the rebels in the first Atlantean Rebellion and took part in the Ritual of Elemental Soul, transforming into one of six subraces (one for each Element). Elemental Elves make up the vast majority of Elvenkind.

Elemental Lord – The Elemental Planes of Earth, Fire, Light, Water and Air are all ruled by one Elemental Lord – the single largest and most powerful Elemental on the Plane. The Plane of Darkness is ruled by thirteen competing Elemental Titans, after the Lord of Darkness was killed in the Atlantean Rebellion. The Elemental Lords are Grome (Earth), Straasha (Water), Elbereth (Light), Kakatal (Fire), (Air). Notable Titans of Darkness include Nox, Elistree, Lloth and Vardun.

Elemental Planes – Six Outer Planes made up entirely of one of the Elements ruled by an Elemental Lord (except for the Plane of Darkness – see Elemental Lord), from which Mages channel Elemental energy in order to cast spells.

Elf – Natives of Atlantis, the Elves were the favoured servants of the Val’ha’ruh (before they rebelled and sealed them away) and are now a collection of tiny enclaves, their civilisation shattered beyond repair by their own transformation into Elemental Elves and the destruction of their homeland.

Elgrun – Former Goddess of Disease, killed by the Dragon Lords.

Erin – One of two countries on the island West of Albion, recently added to the Kingdom of Greater Albion. Physically resembles Northern Ireland.

Europa – The collective name for the North-West quarter of the world, made up of Albion, Erin, Hibernia, Andalucia, Catalonia, Tutonia, France, Gaul, Hansa, Livonia, Karelia, Magyar, Roma, Hellenia and Norsca. Physically resembles Europe.

Fae – One of the beings from Arcadia, poorly-understood by mortal sages or indeed themselves, as they appear to play out “roles” assigned to them by Arcadia itself and hence lack the free will of other races. Come in “Unseelie” and “Seelie” varieties.

Far Plane – An Outer Plane that is especially difficult to reach directly from the Prime Material, such that it is easier to travel there through one or more other planes.

Focus – An item ritually attuned to both a Mage and all six Elemental Planes, which a Mage uses to cast spells.

Folk – A small independent country in the South-East corner of Albion, long since subsumed into Greater Albion. Physically resembles Norfolk and Suffolk.

Forest Elf – Casual (and incorrect) term for a Tomtem.

France – Monarchy, opposed to Greater Albion, which is situated on the other side of the Albion Channel. Physically resembles Northern France and Belgium

Galantri – Independent Kingdom, centred on the city of the same name, in which Durholme’s Palatinate and Newcroft were situated. Destroyed by successive wars and collapsed into ungoverned towns and villages.

Gate – The tiny portal to an Elemental Plane created when a Mage casts a spell.

Gating – The practice of summoning an Elemental and instructing it to carry a passenger into the Elemental Plane, as a means of fast travel. Now banned by the Elemental Lords and Titans, who kill any Mage who attempts it.

Gaul – Country to the South of France, still “barbaric” by Albion and Tutonia’s standards. Physically resembles southern France.

Gehenna – Paraelemental plane of Fire and Darkness. The closest thing to the classical “hell” that exists in TT’s multiverse and occupied by Demons who invaded it several years ago.

Geomancy – Proper name for Ritual Magic.

Ghoul – Mid-level Undead. True Ghouls are derived from the restless spirits of graverobbers, and secrete paralysing venom. Spirit Ghouls are, if anything, worse – their paralysis effect is spiritual and cannot be blocked by armour.

Gnome – Common name for an Earth Elemental.

Goblin – Small humanoid race that resemble miniature Orcs. Goblins are notoriously cunning and come in both above ground (or “forest”) and underdark-dwelling (or “night”) varieties.

God – A Human or Dwarf soul that has become sustained in Limbo by worship, growing into a spiritual entity and attracting like-minded souls to it. The Gods are organised into two Pantheons, named after the totemic weapons of the Pantheon Leaders – Mace (St John) and Sword (Vivamort).

Golem – An Elemental summoned into a manufactured body by a specialised spell (the Darkness version of which survives to this day as the “Scarecrow” spell) and sealed in with either a Permanency spell or a Geomantic ritual. Most Golems date from the Age of High Magic due to Permanency making Golem manufacture much easier, but the practice was invented in the Roma Empire. Traditionally, Iron Golems contain Salamanders, Rag Golems contain Sylphs, Flesh Golems contain Shades, Crystal Golems contain Alkars, Stone Golems contain Gnomes and Clay Golems contain Undines, but the body can really be made out of anything durable.

Divine Plane – The Outer Plane that each God forms around itself as an extension of it’s own consciousness, and the place where Souls of that faith’s followers go when Laid to Rest.

Greater Albion – The Kingdom recently unified from the old countries of Rovac, the Seven Shires, the Folk, The Cornish Princedoms, Cymrija and Erin. Ruled by King Edward I, whose father – before his rise to power - was ruler of Wessex, one of the Seven Shires. Because of this, the Kingdom of Greater Albion is also – incorrectly – known popularly as “The Kingdom of Wessex”.

Grey Magic – The practice of opening a gate to all six elemental planes at once while casting, which results in a blast of mixed “Grey” energies useful for metamagical (spell-affecting) spells like Dispels and Extensions.

Grove of Arcadia – The small area in the centre of Arcadia which Fae are unable to enter, and which is the only part of that Plane which never changes. The Grove may, in fact, be a Plane unto itself much as Arcadia is a Plane within the Dreaming.

Guild – In Durholme, an organisation dedicated to a particular trade or useful specialisation. The Heads of the various Guilds make up the city council.

Halfling – Small humanoid race that resemble miniature Humans, found in small numbers in Southern Albion.

Hansa – Seafaring nation North of France, famous for it’s Trading League and other mercantile interests. Physically resembles the Netherlands and Denmark.

Hawks – Drow slave-soldiers that were sold to the City of Durholme by their owner (after first clipping their ear-tips to denote their exile from Drow society). The Hawks served Durholme’s military with distinction, but were eventually wiped out after several sieges.

Hellenia – Country East of Roma, one of the oldest Human civilisations and the site of several Dragon Lord ruins. Hellenia is famous for spawning monsters and aberrations, leading some to suspect that the ruins are not quite as inactive as people want to believe. Physically resembles Greece.

Hengist – Former God of Necromancers, killed by the Dragon Lords.

Hibernia – Country making up the other half of the island West of Albion, presently threatened by Invasion from Greater Albion. Physically resembles the Republic of Ireland.

High Elf – Common term for Qwenia, or Elemental Elves of Light, used by Humans and the High Elves themselves. Other subraces of Elf only refer to Qwenia as “High” when sucking up or being sarcastic.

Holy Symbol – An iconic “badge” of a particular faith that identifies a priest as being a member of a spirit hierarchy and allows him or her to cast miracles.

Humact – God of Honour in Death, member of the Mace Pantheon. Still reeling from the humiliation of Humact’s great Rival Vivamort stealing Humact’s own Sword and using it to form the Sword Pantheon.

Human – The most populous race on Urth, former Jungle-dwelling barbarians that were barely noticed by the Dragon Lords, imported as servants by the Roma Empire and ended up ruling the world when that Empire collapsed.

Hydrokin – Elemental Elves of Water, who mostly live in coastal villages along the inner sea and whose former position as highly sought-after sailors and traders is rapidly diminishing in the face of technological advancement in ship-building by Humans.

Illithid – aka “Mind-Flayers”, a mysterious race of apparently aquatic Underdark-dwelling humanoids, and the subject of many Urban Myths.

Illusionism – The practice of creating false sensory images through arcane (and poorly understood by non-Illusionists) means, which seem to be related to but not the same as the processes by which Mages cast spells. Said to be an offshoot art from Mathmagic, and highly illegal in both the Kingdom of Greater Albion and Durholme.

Implosion – The disastrous result of a Mage casting when overtired or otherwise losing control of their spell’s Gate. The Mage is sucked into the Gate, being killed by the compression forces involved, and the pulped remains then explode out when the gate vanishes (removing the force keeping the corpse under pressure).

Ishmund – God of Justice, and member of the Mace Pantheon. Notable for his Questing Knights who are barely tolerant of the laws of wherever they might be in their pursuit of justice.

Jai – “Dragon Lord of the Sky”; Chief of the Val’ha’ruh, ruler of Urth, and thankfully dead.

Karelia – Small kingdom on the Baltic Sea. Physically resembles Estonia.

Keepers of Knowledge – The Guild formed from the old temple of the Seeker of Knowledge, who have become King Edward of Greater Albion’s advisors and are engaging in political machinations across Europa.

Kender – Small race of Humanoids that resemble miniature True Elves, Kender are mostly found on their island home of Sicily, but have an insatiable wanderlust. Considered an annoyance at best by most people.

Kerrimar – Former God of Camaraderie and Wolves, killed by the Dragon Lords.

Laughing Companions – Mercenary Unit presently supplementing Durholme’s standing army, as their commander is the Prince Bishop’s son.

Leonara Ventura – Current Prince Bishop of Durholme.

Ley Line – invisible lines of mystical energy that criss-cross Urth in three dimensions. Useless in and of themselves except at points where two or more lines cross.

Ley Nexus – a point at which two or more ley lines cross, and the energy “pools” where it is available for use in Geomancy.

Liche – the most powerful form of Undead, created when a mage binds his or her soul into their body by way of a phylactery in a ritual.

Light – Not to be confused with the Element, Light is the God of Restraint in Power, member of the Mace Gods and concerned with hunting down those who abuse supernatural abilities – evil Mages especially.

Limbo – The Metaplane outside the Spiritual Planes, Limbo is a turbulent realm of chaos and rapidly-changing conditions. Only two directions are discernable – “up”, in which the Limbo-matter becomes increasingly energetic and leads towards Origin, and “down”, in which the limbo-matter becomes increasingly still and which leads to Oblivion. The natural tendency of anything left adrift in Limbo is to “fall” slowly towards Oblivion.

Livonia – Small nation next to Karelia.

Londinium – City-State in Southern Albion, now part of the Kingdom of Greater Albion. Physically resembles London.

Luca – Goddess of Nightmares and Insanity, member of the Sword Gods and the newest God in existence – Luca was, only two years ago, a human adventurer in Durholme who Ascended to Godhood.

Lugh – God of Courage, one of the Triplicity.

Lycanthrope – Proper name for those who suffer from Lycanthropy, a magical/spiritual curse/disease that turns those afflicted into Werewolves.

Mace God – A Member of the Mace Pantheon, bound together in the Mace of Dragon-Lord Slaying by a ritual conducted by Durholme church members. The Mace Gods are St John, Humact, Light, Ishmund, Mallan, Astalon-Ziorbina, Morvana and The Circle of Balance.

Maenuth – City-State in Erin, once a Theocracy of Balance (and a heretical one, too), now ruled by Durholme ex-patriots and recently subsumed into the Kingdom of Greater Albion. Physically resembles the university town of the same name.

Magic – The practice of summoning Elemental energy from one of the Elemental Planes and shaping it into a spell.

Magyar – Country, dominated by Undead, on the Eastern edge of Europa. Physically resembles Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

Malar – Former God of Wild Animals and Natural Disasters, killed by the Dragon Lords.

Mallan – God of Rulership and Government. Member of the Mace Gods, and considered to be the least “good” God of that Pantheon due to his faith’s somewhat hard-line attitudes to social reform.

Mana – The qualitative measure of a Mage’s ability to go on casting spells before becoming overtired.

Margrave – The chairperson of the City Council of Durholme, who handles the day-to-day business of the city for the Prince Bishop. Currently Corrigan, but due to his indisposition the role is being taken over by “Seneschal” Illara.

Mathmagic – The highest art, the alteration of reality itself – usually expressed as highly complex mystical “equations” that the Mathmagician works through. Mathmagic can literally do anything. Two groups in history have practiced Mathmagic - the Val’ha’ruh and the Human Cabal – and both guarded the secret carefully such that no-one now knows how to use it.

Mathmagician’s Tower – The Tower in Durholme built in 0 DR as a base of operations by the Cabal. The Tower is imposing, indestructible (according to legend) and utterly impenetrable.

Matrix – The “shape” of a spell that a Mage memorises before casting, and the bulk of what is written in all those spell-books.

Merfolk – Chimerae of Water, formed when a Hydrokin child suffers something wrong in the formation of it’s Elemental soul. Resemble Hydrokin crossed with fish, and form their own underwater communities in the Middle Sea.

Metaplane – An Outer Plane that appears to form the substance which several other planes are “inside”.

Mewlip – Small swamp-dwelling lizard-like humanoids, barely sentient and treated as wild animals by other races – including Humans.

Miracle – the result of a priest ordering a Spirit of his or her god to use it’s powers – usually to affect the Soul of another creature and, by extension, that creature itself.

Morvana – Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare, member of the Mace Pantheon. Noted for her Temple’s strong female bias – most Morvanians are women and the temple considers itself the guardian of that gender.

Near Plane – An outer plane that can be “easily” reached directly from the Prime Material.

Necromancy – The practice of either forcing a soul to remain in it’s body and rise as a true undead through Ritual means, or of casting a miracle from one of the less scrupulous Gods which inhabits a corpse with the miracle-Spirit - creating a Spirit Undead. Most Necromancers do both.

New Durholme – The name for a swath of Northern Rovac that Durholme conquered several years ago but has since ceded to the Kingdom of Greater Albion.

Newcroft – City-State in former Galantri that is technically part of Durhome’s Palatinate but in practice is self-governing. Physically resembles Newcastle.

Norsca – Large, mountainous country jutting out from Northern Europa, inhabited by Trolls and a Human and Dwarven civilisation that apes the Trollish culture as much as is physically possible for those races. Physically resembles Sweden and Norway.

Oblivion – Name for the utter emptiness at the “bottom” of Limbo, from which no planar explorer ever returns. The Final Destination of everything in the TT multiverse.

Ogre – Large Green-skinned Humanoids from the Ogre Lands.

Ogre Lands – The territories between Persia and Magyar and the Ancient Empire, inhabited by Ogres. Physically resembles Khazakistan, Mongolia and Tibet.

Ogre-Magi – Large blue-skinned offshoot race of Ogres, that are far more intelligent and end of as both mages and the rulers of Ogre tribes.

Oghma – God of Bards, one of the Triplicity.

Orc – Ubiquitous Green-skinned Demon-worshipping race, descended from the now-vanished Urca after that Race bargained with demons when the Dwarves attempted Genocide against them.

Origin – name for the utter brilliance and raw energy at the “top” of Limbo, which no Planar Explorer has managed to reach.

Outer Plane – Any “world” that is not the Prime Material.

Palatinate – Technical name for Durholme’s territory. Usually just called “Durholme”.

Pantheon – A group of Gods banded together and linked via a symbolic artefact in the keeping of the Pantheon leader. The formation of the Pantheons allowed those Gods who took part to survive the Dragon Lords’ attacks.

Paraelemental Magic – The practice of opening a spell-gate to a paraelemental plane rather than an elemental plane, in order to use the more specialised energies found within for particularly esoteric spells. Illegal in Durholme for the sake of the Mage’s own safety – the Elemental Lords take violent umbrage at anyone who researches ways to cast spells without their say-so.

Paraelemental Planes – Mysterious and seldom-visited Outer Planes, each of which is a mix between two Elements. The Plane of Smoke, for instance, is comprised of Fire and Air. The two most “often” visited are Shadow (Light/Darkness) and Gehenna (Fire/Darkness), both of which have stable Portals to them located in North-East Albion that were built during the Age of High Magic.

Permanency – The very highest level of the art of Grey Magic, the Permanency spell binds another spell into an item with an infinite duration allowing the easy (compared to geomancy – Permanency is still a 13th-circle spell) manufacture of magic items. The matrix for Permanency is long lost, though a copy is reputed to be inside the Mathmagician’s Tower.

Persia – Human country between Hellenia and the Burning Lands. Physically resembles Turkey.

Pictlands – Territory of Human Barbarians and Orcs in the Northern portion of Albion, and the traditional enemies of the border countries. Currently being invaded by Bayazid and his undead hordes, which is forcing the Picts south.

Pocket Planes – Artificial Outer Planes created through Geomancy or Mathmagic, which are as varied as the whims of their ancient designers.

Prime Material – Name for the Plane on which Urth is located.

Prince Bishop – Religious leader of the Church of Balance, and ruler of Durholme.

Prince Bishop’s Men – The elite subset of the City Guard that serve as the Prince Bishop’s bodyguard.

Pyrokin – Elemental Elves of Fire, most of whom are to be found in the Burning Lands and whom are the second most successful of the Elven subraces.

Qwenia – 1) Elemental Elves of Light, most of whom are to be found in Andalucia. 2) The Elvish word for “Elf”. Pronounced the same as Qweniar.

Qweniar – 1) Elemental Elves of Air, the least successful Elven subrace, who live in small communities in mountainous highlands across Europa. 2) The Air-Elf Dialect of the Elvish word for “Elf”. Pronounced the same as Qwenia.

Ring of Power – Dragon Lord artefact that granted wishes, actually the receptacle for the Dragon Lord Besheba’s soul.

Ritual Magic – The practice, invented by Dwarves, of conducting sympathetic rituals at Ley Nexii in order to alter the world or imbue items with properties. Extremely dangerous and not for the faint of heart.

Ritual of Elemental Soul – The Ritual at the end of the first Atlantean Rebellion in which the Elves and Dragons sold their souls to the Elemental Lords in order to gain their support against the Dragon Lords.

Roma – 1) Country made up of Human and Dwarven city-states on the Inner Sea, physically resembling Italy. 2) The Dwarven Empire that stretched across Europa until it’s collapse coincided with the appearance of the Cabal.

Roof of the World – the mountains of central Europa, home to most of the world’s remaining Qweniar. Physically resemble the Alps.

Rovac – Country in Northern Albion, smashed apart and rampaged across by ever-increasing numbers of armies. Now part of the Kingdom of Greater Albion. Physically resembles Yorkshire.

Runemetal – Dark silvery metal found only in Atlantis (and therefore nowadays only found in Atlantean relics) that has a stabilising effect on Elemental or Geomantic energies – almost the reverse of Cold Iron. Highly sought after as it does not restrict spellcasting like normal metal does and can store spells like Alchemical metal only with greater capacity. Most Runemetal in the Age of Strife is already “in use” as magic items created in the Age of High Magic.

Sahara – 1) The now-destroyed Jungle homeland of Humans. 2) The Desert that covers the top half of the Southlands, after the Jungle was destroyed by Malar during the Roma Empire.

Salamander – Common term for a Fire Elemental.

Schilling – The currency of the Kingdom of Greater Albion which Durholme, in it’s present economic distress, has been forced to adopt.

Seeker of Knowledge – Former God of Learning, killed by the Dragon Lords.

Seelie Fae – Fae which have been given a distinct personality by whatever arcane force rules Arcadia, and left to decide for themselves what purpose to find in existence.

Seven Shires – Human Kingdom that made up the majority of Southern Albion, Now the heartland of the Kingdom of Greater Albion.

Shade – Common term for a Darkness Elemental.

Shadow Magic – Vulgar term for paraelemental magic of Light and Darkness, the most common form of paraelementalism, and doubly inadvised as it’s use is illegal in Durholme and Greater Albion as well as being violently discouraged by the appropriate Elemental Lords. Even so, some “Darkness” spells commonly used in Durholme were originally researched as Shadow magic spells – Cloak of Shadows being the most obvious.

Sicily – Island of the coast of Roma, home to the Kender.

Silver Daggers – Mercenary company that made up Durholme’s small cavalry, wiped out in successive sieges.

Skeleton – Minor undead. True Skeletons are the result of disturbed battlefields, Spirit Skeletons are formed with Miracles.

Smurf – Highly derogatory term for a Qweniar, or Air Elf.

Sordan – God of Suffering, member of the Sword Gods and one of two Gods still in existence to have their worship declared illegal in Durholme.

Soul – The Spirit inside a living being. After death, Souls appear to “drop” out of the Prime Material, through the Dreaming and into Limbo where they either gravitate towards the Divine Plane of the God they worshipped in life or fall down into Oblivion and out of the TT multiverse. Some Souls linger in the Prime Material and become Undead, while the “lay to rest” ability of some priests forces a lingering Soul to begin it’s journey, usually marking the soul as being for the attention of a particular deity while it’s at it.

Southlands – Term for the unexplored lands south of the Sahara, in which a Kingdom ruled by a Theocracy of St John is rumoured to exist. Physically resembles Africa.

Spirit – An intangible servitor of a God, which may be given orders by a priest of that God in order to produce Miracles.

Spirit Undead – Undead that are produced by priests of certain Gods by means of Miracles – the Spirit performing the miracle enters the corpse and animates it. Spirit Undead are usually less powerful and long-lasting as true Undead, but are significantly easier to make.

St John – God of Healing and Protection, leader of the Mace Pantheon. St John’s priests are usually pacifistic, but the God himself does not demand it – in mortal life, he himself was a famous warrior and tactician.

Sword God - A Member of the Sword Pantheon, bound together in the Sword of Humact (confusingly, the personal weapon of Vivamort. It’s a long story) by a ritual conducted by Vivamort. The Sword Gods are Vivamort, Azrael, Luca, Sordan, Crofter, Triplicity, Bast and The Circle of Balance.

Sylph – Common name for an Air Elemental.

Tomtem – Elemental Elves of Earth, highly divided between those who live in forests and are highly protective of nature and those who take a worldly, mercantile attitude. The Tomtem were devastated by the Dragon Lords in recent years, and 85% of their population was driven mad and enslaved. Their society is rapidly dying as the few remaining Tomtem fail to cope.

Triplicity – The three Gods Lugh, Brigit and Oghma who form a joint-deity. Members of the Sword Gods, the Triplicity are attempting to take over from the dead Seeker as God of Knowledge.

Troll – Large green humanoid from Norsca, who have a Viking-like lifestyle exaggerated by their regenerative abilities and superhuman strength. Trolls aren’t (very) stupid, but have a deep-seated contempt for civilisation and it’s trappings – their near-indestructibility leads them to regard things like needing shelter and agriculture to survive as pathetic weaknesses.

True Dragon – The Dragons who did not take part in the Ritual of Elemental Soul or their descendents, True Dragons make up the majority of Dragonkind, and often became priests. Unfortunately, their freedom from the Elemental Lords means that the Dragon Lords can still mentally command them, and most True Dragons vanished when the Val’ha’ruh reappeared, summoned back to their masters. None have yet to reappear.

True Elf – The descendents of Elves that did not take part in the Ritual of Elemental Soul and are therefore the “original” Elven race. Hunted to near-extinction by the Elemental Elves, who regard them as race-traitors, and made even closer to being extinct by the Dragon Lords.

True Undead – Undead that are either created via ritual or that arise “naturally” through some emotional need on the part of a Soul that has not been laid to rest. True Undead are usually far more powerful, though far harder to create, than Spirit Undead, and many of the more powerful undead types only exist in “True” forms.

Tutonia – Large Human Kingdom, dominated by worship of the Light, in central Europa. Physically resembles Germany.

Undead – Either restless Souls of the dead which return as malignant incorporeal Spirits such as wraiths and ghosts, those souls inhabiting their old bodies – in various states of decomposition – such as Zombies and Skeletons, or finally Spirits of darker Gods that are puppeteering a corpse, such as the so called “spirit undead”.

Undine – Common name for a Water Elemental.

Unseelie Fae - Fae which have been given a distinct purpose by whatever arcane force rules Arcadia, and left to decide for themselves what personality to adopt in order to best achieve that purpose.

Urca – The long-vanished native race of Albion, who evolved into Orcs when the Dwarves attempted to wipe them out. The Urca reportedly had a Druidic culture and were far less prone to violence than their Demon-tainted descendents.

Urth – Proper name for TT’s world, which is usually just called “Earth”. As most characters are illiterate and it’s pronounced the same.

Val’ha’ruh – The Mathmagical Spirit/Beings (who may or may not have either once been Elves who altered themselves Mathmagically or may or may not have been the creators of Urth or may or may not have been alien beings that invaded the Prime Material from a far-distant plane) that ruled the World at the start of recorded history. Sealed away in their own Pocket Realm during the Atlantean Rebellion, the Val’ha’ruh escaped with the unwitting aid of Durholme adventurers at the start of the Age of Strife. After “disappearing” all the True Dragons, True Elves and several species of lesser demon, killing most of the Tomtem and eating all but 15 of the Gods and one Elemental Titan of Darkness, they were finally killed last year.

Vampire – Greater Undead, Created by Ritual as a means of gaining immortality by stealing the life-force of others or by being deliberately turned by another Vampire. Said to be the second form of Undead to be invented, after liches.

Vetch – Rat-men who appeared in the later Roma Empire and took over several Dwarf cities. Vetch worship demons and live beneath other race’s population centres – there is a colony beneath Durholme.

Vivamort – God of Undead and Necromancers, leader of the Sword Pantheon. Vivamort was, in life, a high priest of the Circle of Balance before being turned into a Vampire and later a God (oddly enough, right at the very end of the Age of High Magic. Hm. Wonder if he might have been involved?). Vivamort’s worship is illegal in Durholme.

Walkeen – Former God of Trade, Killed by the Elemental Being known as the Aspect and briefly impersonated by a Dragon Lord after the event.

Warpstone – Odd material found deep underground that causes mutations in living beings.

Well Of Souls – Alternate name for Limbo.

William Hatfield – The former Prince Bishop of Durholme, who died defending the city against a Demon Lord.

Xacrin – Former God of Revenge, killed by the Dragon Lords.

Xaroc – Last surviving member of the Mathmagician’s Cabal, sealed away for centuries after contracting Vampirism and released several years ago by Durholme adventurers.

Yorvik – City-State in what was once Rovac and is now part of the Kingdom of Greater Albion. Physically resembles York.

Yuan-ti – Chimerae of Fire, formed when a Pyrokin child suffers something wrong in the formation if it’s Elemental soul. Resemble Pyrokin crossed with Snakes, and regarded as sacred by Pyrokin. Most Yuan-ti dwell in the desert-cities hidden in the Burning Lands.

Zombie – Minor Undead. True Zombies are created when a person is so self-obsessed as to not realise that they are dead, Spirit Zombies are among the easiest Undead to create with miracles.

Matters of Religion

<this section is known IC to anyone with Spiritual Awakening or a sufficient background skill in Religion>

In OOC form, then…

A God is a Dwarven or Human Soul that has died, gone on from the Prime Material but has somehow become sustained there rather than continuing on to Oblivion (the method by which this sustaining happens is unknown to most characters, but the information is out there. Ask around. You might learn something). Other races supposedly had Gods until very recently – Goblins certainly claimed to worship a pantheon of their own – but only the more commonly known ones survived the Dragon Lords’ attacks.

The resulting spiritual being grows into a self-contained plane, which reflects the mindset of the God (the God is the plane. So if, for example, you go to the plane of Vivamort on an adventure, your character is walking around inside Vivamort himself). Semi-automonous beings called Spirits grow out of this plane, and are sent back into the Prime Material by the God to further it’s interests. While they have some measure of independent action, a Spirit is really only a mobile facet of the larger God. In addition, Gods can “catch” Souls of the dead coming out of the Prime Material that match their area of influence sufficiently. These Souls are then subsumed into the God, and are usually turned into new Spirits.

A Priest is someone who has, through Awakening to his or her own spirit, had their Soul turned into a part of the God despite the Priest not being dead yet. As such, their Souls have a ranking in the spiritual hierarchy of their God, and the Priest can give lower-ranking Spirits orders. When a Priest casts a miracle, they are ordering a nearby free Spirit of their God to use it’s powers to affect the spirits of others. Your Character’s Devotion rating represents their Soul’s rank, while the Spirit Points represent how many such favours you are allowed to call in.

Pantheons and the Complications they bring

Priests of Vivamort and St John may not have their vocals interrupted by damage. They may also demand a power meld from a priest of their Pantheon except for the Circle of Balance.

Each God has an opposite number in the other Pantheon. Killing a priest of that God grants a priest any remaining Spirit Points the opponent had, up to the normal maximum for the character doing the killing.

Each God has an Artefact Weapon, which may occasionally float through the system a whistlin’ as they go. Look out for them.

Sword God priests perform their re-empowerment rituals at Dusk. Mace God priests perform them at Dawn. These rituals are really just extended (1 minutes per level of Devotion is a good rule of thumb) prayers, asking the God to renew a Priest’s authority over the spirits, and don’t need to be performed at Ley Nexii.

And now, some Frequently-Asked Questions…

Q: What happens if the spirit performing a miracle is diverted?

A: The Miracle is delayed until the Spirit manages (if ever) to get back to the job your priest gave it. This has actually happened a couple of times – last year the Orc invasion used a “spirit catcher” to stop the Humans from healing each other.

Q: Are there any instances where there aren’t any spirits of my God about?

A: Yes, though only very rarely (like in the inner Sanctums of the Temples of the opposite God). Assume that you can cast a miracle unless you’re told you can’t.

Q: Do Miracles work off-Plane?

A: This is up to the Refs of the adventure involved. In general, though, Pocket Planes and Astral Planes usually have Spirits in them. God Planes of the correct Pantheon will, and Spirit use may even be free (in terms of spirit points) on the Plane of the God you’re priest is a worshipper of.

Q: The Pantheon Oppositions are stupid.

A: Yes, they are. In many cases, the oppositions only exist because one of the Gods involved was ordered to do so by the Pantheon leader, and the counterpart is defending itself. In others, like the Luca-Light animosity or the Ishmund-Sordan one, the bad blood existed before the Pantheons came into being and the Gods are positively enthusiastic about it.

Q: My God is in the Sword Pantheon. Does that mean she’s evil?

A: No. It means she’s subservient to Vivamort. And may be ordered to do evil things as Vivamort himself is evil. But when such happen, remember that the God has to be forced to do it by the Pantheon leader, and that certain of the Sword Gods are well known for their rebellious natures.

Q: I can’t save my God from turning Evil

A: The Pantheons were made by a Ritual. They can be unmade by a ritual. But there are consequences for everything, and messing with the cosmic order is not for beginners. If you don’t like your Deity having to take orders from a Deity that you (and it) don’t like, try to do something about it. We await your downtimes with interest.

Q: The whole idea of the Pantheons is pointless.

A: Tell that to the Seekers. Or, less flippantly, the Pantheons remain in existence OOC as motivational factors for the Gods – a world where the various Gods are scheming against one another, trying to appear to be loyal to their Pantheon leaders while actually screwing them over royally and pushing one another for position is more interesting (in the Chinese sense) than one in which the Gods are all isolated and “safe” from one another.

Q: Can I invent a new God for my Adventure / Character?

A: No. The Circle of Balance has been left vague so as to allow for new minor deities to be created as members, but no more full Gods created fully-formed will be allowed. Ascendance of a character to Godhood is on the scale of a 3YGB or year-long series of adventures, and the ref team would have to be consulted.

Q: Yadda yadda Evil yadda yadda

A: Why is it that priests of Mallan never complain about suddenly being forced to become Good?

Undead

There is a long history of confusion regarding the differences between True and Spirit undead, just how Necromancers are supposed to go about their business and just what that Lay to Rest ability does.

From the top, then…

<This section is known IC to anyone with the Undeath Lore skill>

In the dim and distant past, there were two ways to become Undead, both of which wound up doing essentially the same thing – preventing one’s Soul from leaving one’s body after death. Very rarely, people who died with strong emotional ties (and we’re usually talking the more primal emotions here – courtly love won’t cut it, but a burning desire to gain revenge on your murderer might) manage to maintain their Soul’s grip on their body rather than quickly float off to Limbo via the Dreaming like they should. In even rarer circumstances, powerful Ritualists or Mathmagicians artificially induced the condition either in themselves or others.

The creatures resulting are what we call “True” Undead, and still exist in TT today – they are far, far, rarer than Spirit Undead, but usually more powerful. If there isn’t a “Summon X” Miracle for a type of Undead, then that type is only found as a “True” version.

The precise details of which Souls become which types of Undead depend on what drives them to stay on the Prime Material – Those who just can’t accept that they’re dead become Zombies (which in their True variety are just as quick and intelligent as they were in life. They’re just dead). Battlefield dead become Skeletons. Graverobbers and Cannibalism victims become Ghouls. Ritualists who bind their souls into items for safekeeping become Liches. Those who seek undeath in rituals involving human sacrifice become Vampires. And so forth.

The Lay to Rest ability of some priests forces a Soul off the Prime Material and onto it’s final journey as long as that soul is not yet undead, or the undead has been “killed” again. It cannot prevent an externally-powered undead condition, so (for example) a ritualist who has empowered himself to become a Wight upon death cannot be laid to rest until his Wight self is killed.

During the Age of High Magic, however, the practice of Necromancy was invented by the Scarlet Witch King Bayazid. Bayazid figured out how to Mathmagically (and later, after he’d done the groundwork, Ritually) summon Spirits into corpses whose Souls had already passed onto the afterlife, the interloping spirit animating that corpse as if it were the corpses’ long-vanished soul. Because the spirit involved isn’t a perfect “fit” for the body, the resulting undead just isn’t as powerful. After a few of Bayazid’s pupils died, ascended to Godhood as gods of Undeath and started handing out Miracles that did the same thing to their priests, the numbers of these “Spirit” undead mushroomed. In the case of, say, a “Summon Zombie” miracle cast by a Vivamortian, the Spirit that is performing the miracle (if this confuses you, check again how priests work) enters the body and animates it. As the Spirit is a God-servitor and not actually a human (or whatever) Soul, lay to rest does nothing useful.

So. True Undead are the classical ghost story type ones, where the undead creature is a unique personality that is best gotten rid of by bringing closure to whatever keeps it on this plane, while Spirit Undead are the ones summoned by priests and ritualists as cannon-fodder. If someone gets laid to rest, their body can still be used as host for a Spirit Undead, but laying to rest that Undead (if it’s been destroyed) or casting Exorcism on it (if it hasn’t) will eject the possessing Spirit.

Clear as mud, eh?

A couple of complicating factors / minor oddities:

True Ghouls are actually weaker than Spirit Ghouls. As True Ghouls secrete a paralysing venom, while Spirit Ghouls just use the same effect as a Paralysis Miracle. Which ignores armour.

Spirit Skeletons and Zombies are only distinguished by whether the possessing spirit is in the bones or flesh of the corpse. Skeletons can be (and often are) just as... meaty… as Zombies. Which is rather confusing.

Vampires only exist as True undead – the Summon Vampire miracle literally transports the nearest vampire to the caster’s location. Vampires are also the only undead that can pass on their condition.

Magic

Magical Theory is pretty well known, so this will be brief. The following is known IC to anyone with Elemental Theory.

A Mage performs a ritual (which, unlike the re-empowerment prayers of priests, is a proper Ley-Nexus ritual, but unlike most Geomancy has a well-known and easily-purchased script for the proto-mage to follow) to attract the attention of EITHER all five Elemental Lords and the Elemental Titan of Darkness of the caster’s choice, OR just the Five Elemental Lords OR four Elemental Lords and one Titan of Darkness. The beings so called upon then empower a small decorative item as a “Focus”, which is ritually empowered to – when activated by the Mage – open a tiny Portal to either one of the Planes contacted in the ritual. Or all six Elemental Planes at once. Focii empowered in rituals that did not contact one of the Planes (usually because the Mage is an Elf of an opposing element) can still open the six-way gates.

Opening the Elemental Gate just as is causes a tiny inrush of Elemental energy called a “Cantrip”. For anything more specific, a Spell Matrix is needed – a mental “shape” that the Mage forces the energy into when it enters the Prime Material.

Opening spell gates is tiring work – Mages refer to the number of times they can cast safely as “Mana”, and more complex spells use more and more of it. If a mage casts when overtired, they risk losing control of the Gate and being sucked into the Elemental Plane in an “implosion”.

Complicating matters, Metal somehow stops mages from casting when they are in contact with too much of it. Theories abound as to why, and mages can get vocal about whether they are “the metal grounds the elemental energy” or “the metal interferes with the focus” advocates. It is known that Cold Iron effectively drains all the Mana out of a Mage while it is in contact – a Mage trying to cast while touching Cold Iron will automatically implode. The “Metal Grounders” look to this as proof of their

theory, while the “Focus Interferers” say it’s just an odd property of Cold Iron and has nothing to do with the larger “metal problem”.

FREQUENTLY-ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Can I cast using other planes than the Elemental ones?

A: Yes, if you have a focus designed to do so. Which we will want to be made in a ritual that you perform IC in the Goblin where we can see it. Best of luck with that.

Q: Why can’t I summon a Grey Elemental?

A: Because they don’t exist. Grey Magic calls on six Elemental Planes, not some mysterious 7th Plane.

Q: How do I make magic items?

A: This has it’s own section later on.

Q: Where do I learn Spells from?

A: The Mage’s Guild has big old books full of Spell Matrixes. Join IC and ask.

Q: Stuff the Guild, I’m a rebel, me. Can I still buy Spells with XP?

A: Technically, yes, but unless you can get access to a Matrix to copy you’ll have to research the Spell yourself as though it was a unique spell to your character. Albeit one far more likely to be passed by the ref team.

Q: Can I make up my own spells?

A: Yes. Welcome to one of the perks Mages have over Spirit-Users, the ability to research your own new spells. Ask more senior Mages IC, see the Ref Team and send in those research downtimes.

Q: Why does Metal stop Mages from casting?

A: Not telling. IC, the “metal grounds the energy” theory is popular, but as has been pointed out OOC a few times this doesn’t actually make sense.

Q: Can I cast spells off-plane?

A: Yes, your Focus should link to the Elemental Planes no matter where in the multiverse you are, but if the Veil of the world you’re in is especially strong between it and the Elemental Plane(s) you’re using the spell might fail or require more Mana to cast. The Refs of whatever adventure you’re on will tell you.

Q: Do spells go above 9th Level?

A: Yes, though you’ll never ever cast them. The 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th level spells all existed back when Archmages were ten a penny (the likes of “Volcano”, “Summon Elemental Collossus”, “Permanency”, “Stoneskin Other”, “Hurricane” and “Level Drain” give ideas) but in these uncertain times the level of skill needed would be truly legendary, even if the Matrix for one of the spells could be found.

Races

Okay, then. A more complete picture of the various races has already been circulating IC for some time, now, so this short section is mostly a list of the races, their powers, where they’re form and so forth. If you actually play a non-human, tell us and the refs will send you the long version for that race.

An average Human citizen of Durholme has met Catkin in the shape of Bast’s priests, Drow in the form of the Drow who occasionally come up from beneath the city, Pyrokin as the warmongering humanoids who invaded Albion a while back, Goblns and Orcs as the frequent Besiegers of the city, Vetch as half-heard of rumours and urban myths, Dwarves as the Engineer’s Guild and Kender as irritants. Everything else is unusual enough to be stared at or run away from.

Beastkin. Also called: Ferals, Beastmen, FurriesLifespan: VariesRegions of origin (ancestral): Worldwide (unknown)

Physical difference from humans: Animal characteristicsFocus of religion: VariesMages? YesPriests? YesRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: Skill Package:

CatkinAlso called: CatsLifespan: 25-40Regions of origin (ancestral): Albion and Agypt (Agypt)Physical difference from humans: Feline characteristics. Fur. Whiskers.Focus of religion: GodsMages? YesPriests? YesRitualists? YesPlayer race? Yes Points cost: Skill Package:

ChimeraeAlso called: Driders / Centaurs / Yuan-ti / Aaracockra / MerfolkLifespan: 60-130 / 100-200 / 100-200 / 120 – 200 / 70 - 190Regions of origin (ancestral): Elven communitiesPhysical difference from humans: As per Drow / Tomtem / Pyrokin / Qweniar / Hydrokin but with legs replaced with the lower body of a Spider / Horse / Snake / Bird / Fish. Aaracockra also have wings instead of arms.Focus of religion: Elemental LordsMages? YesPriests? NoRitualists? YesPlayer race? Maybe for Driders, Yuan-ti and Aaracockra. No for Centaurs and Merfolk. Points cost: Skill Package:

DrowAlso called: Darkness ElvesLifespan: 60-120Regions of origin (ancestral): Underdark (Atlantis)Physical difference from humans: Black skin/hair. Pointed ears.Focus of religion: Elemental LordsMages? YesPriests? No Ritualists? Yes Player race? Yes Points cost: 20Skill Package:

DwarvesLifespan: 100-200Regions of origin (ancestral): Underdark (Roma)Physical difference from humans: Short. Powerfully built.Focus of religion: GodsMages? YesPriests? YesRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: Skill Package:

FaeAlso called: Fey, FaeriesLifespan: unagingRegions of origin (ancestral): Worldwide (Arcadia)Physical difference from humans: Varies by individual Glamour.Focus of religion: noneMages? specialPriests? specialRitualists? specialPlayer race? MaybePoints cost: Skill Package:

GoblinsLifespan: 20-40Regions of origin (ancestral): Albion (Albion)Physical difference from humans: Short. Green skin. Long noses & pointed ears.Focus of religion: GodsMages? NoPriests? YesRitualists? NoPlayer race? MaybePoints cost: Skill Package:

HalflingsAlso called: HobbitsLifespan: 50-90Regions of origin (ancestral): Albion (Albion)Physical difference from humans: Short, hair-covered feetFocus of religion: GodsMages? YesPriests? YesRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: Skill Package:

HumansLifespan: 40-70Regions of origin (ancestral): Worldwide (Sahara)Physical difference from humans: n/aFocus of religion: GodsMages? YesPriests? YesRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: noneSkill Package: none

HydrokinAlso called: Water Elves, NixiesLifespan: 180-250Regions of origin (ancestral): Hellenia, Middle Sea (Atlantis)Physical difference from humans: Green skin/hair. Pointed ears.Focus of religion: Elemental LordsMages? YesPriests? NoRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: 20Skill Package:

IllithidsAlso called: Mind FlayersLifespan: unknownRegions of origin (ancestral): Underdark (unknown)Physical difference from humans: Squid-like characteristics. Tall. Clawed hands.Focus of religion: unknownMages? unknownPriests? unknownRitualists? unknownPlayer race? NoPoints cost: n/aSkill Package: n/a

KenderAlso called: Theiving Little &*%!sLifespan: 20-50Regions of origin (ancestral): Sicily (Sicily)Physical difference from humans: Small, Pointed ears. Topknots.Focus of religion: GodsMages? YesPriests? YesRitualists? NoPlayer race? YesPoints cost: Skill Package:

MewlipsAlso called: Swamp-LizardsLifespan: 15-30Regions of origin (ancestral): Albion (unknown)Physical difference from humans: Small. Lizardlike characteristics + covering of black fur.Focus of religion: unknownMages? NoPriests? NoRitualists? NoPlayer race? NoPoints cost: Skill Package:

OgresAlso called: BrutesLifespan: 40-100Regions of origin (ancestral): Worldwide (Ogre-Lands)Physical difference from humans: Large, powerfully built.Focus of religion: Ancestral HeroesMages? YesPriests? NoRitualists? NoPlayer race? MaybePoints cost: Skill Package:

OrcsLifespan: 24-50Regions of origin (ancestral): Albion (Albion)Physical difference from humans: Slightly larger. Green skin. Tusks on elder males.Focus of religion: DemonsMages? NoPriests? NoRitualists? YesPlayer race? Maybe

Points cost: Skill Package:

PyrokinAlso called: Fire ElvesLifespan: 150-250Regions of origin (ancestral): Burning Lands (Atlantis)Physical difference from humans: Red skin/hair. Pointed ears.Focus of religion: Elemental LordsMages? YesPriests? NoRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: 20Skill Package:

QweniaAlso called: Light Elves, High ElvesLifespan: 220-280Regions of origin (ancestral): Andalucia (Atlantis)Physical difference from humans: White skin/hair. Pointed ears.Focus of religion: Elemental LordsMages? YesPriests? NoRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: 20Skill Package:

QweniarAlso called: Air Elves, SmurfsLifespan: 200-250Regions of origin (ancestral): Roof of the World (Atlantis)Physical difference from humans: Blue skin/hair. Pointed ears.Focus of religion: Elemental LordsMages? YesPriests? NoRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: 20Skill Package:

TomtemAlso called: Earth Elves, Forest ElvesLifespan: 200-250Regions of origin (ancestral): Andalucia/Tutonia (Atlantis)Physical difference from humans: Brown skin/hair. Pointed ears.Focus of religion: Elemental LordsMages? YesPriests? NoRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: 20Skill Package:

TrollsLifespan: 60-unknown (do not age, but usually die to violence)Regions of origin (ancestral): Norsca/Bellaruss (Norsca)Physical difference from humans: Large, powerfully built. Green skin. Long, pointed noses.Focus of religion: Ancestral HeroesMages? NoPriests? No

Ritualists? NoPlayer race? NoPoints cost: Skill Package:

True ElfAlso called: Forest ElvesLifespan: 50-120Regions of origin (ancestral): Worldwide (Atlantis)Physical difference from humans: Pointed ears.Focus of religion: No ReligionMages? NoPriests? NoRitualists? YesPlayer race? YesPoints cost: Skill Package:

VetchAlso called: RatmenLifespan: 10-20Regions of origin (ancestral): Underdark (unknown)Physical difference from humans: Small. Rat-like characteristics.Focus of religion: DemonsMages? NoPriests? NoRitualists? YesPlayer race? MaybePoints cost: Skill Package:

FAQ

Q: Can I invent a new race?

A: Yes, with one major qualification: any new races are from off-plane. The above list represents all the thinking peoples of Urth (with one race – Dragons – who got missed out due to not being humanoid).

Q: What’s with the racial packages?

A: We decided to do them. So sue us.

Q:What does “special” mean in the Fae entry?

A: Fae are Astral beings and as such, could only be properly modelled in TT’s mechanics if we had psionics rules. As we don’t (and good thing, too), we are forced to use a clutch of other mechanics to represent their powers. So we’re clear – a Fae can appear to be a Mage or a Priest or a Ritualist, but any effects they produce are entirely based off their own inscrutable energies – the spell cast by a Fae “mage” is as much a construct of the Dreaming as the Fae itself, and does not draw on the Elemental Planes. It uses exactly the same game mechanics, though. Hence “special”.

Q: Can I play a…

A: “Yes” means yes (subject to background as with any character). “No”, sadly, means No. You just can’t play a Troll or an Illithid. “Maybe” means “No”, but an extended period of pleading, the bribing of refs and the building of the specialised costume needed to properly physrep such a creature may shift that to a “Yes, but we’ll screw you in plot”.

Q: Chimerae are stupid.

A: They are also long-established in TT’s setting. We even had a Drider PC a while back. Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Q: What about Undead? Or Demons?

A: Undead as player characters are a big fat “Maybe” for low-ranking Undead like True Zombies, and flat-out “NO” for higher-powered beasties like Vampires. Demons, much as we love them, are also in the NO category unless they are functionally humans with funny makeup.

Q: What about Half-breeds?

A: All of the races can interbreed. Most don’t, but in the rare instances where it happens and a child is brought to term, the result will be a member of one of the parent’s races with modified makeup. If, for example, you’re a half-elf, then you either don’t pay the Elf XP cost and play a human with coloured skin in patches, or you do pay the XP, receive the elf abilities and play an Elf with human-coloured patches.

{There is a bit of discussion going on about this last point – If people would avoid starting new half-breeds for a bit it would help a lot, Cheers. G.}

Q: Those Life-spans seem a little short

A: You caught us – some of the races have, in fact, had their lifespans drastically cut in the TT Setting Project, simply to allow for certain murky periods of history to remain nicely murky.

Q: I thought Orcs could use Magic and Spirit

A: The “Orc Shamans are multiclassed Mages/Priests” thing is an artefact of the system – they’re actually ritualists who are granted spell-like effects that use magic and/or spirit mechanics by the Demons that they summon.

Q: Since when did Kender come from Sicily?

A: Since the ref team got drunk.

Countries

See the maps. The descriptions of each country in the Lexicon should suffice, unless you come from that country in the which case the refs will give further details when asked. A big-ass table follows.

COUNTRY MAIN RACES MAIN RELIGIONS IS SORT OF LIKEAgypt Humans, Catkin Bast Ancient EgyptAlbion Humans St John, Humact, Mallan EnglandAncient Empire Humans n/a ChinaAndalucia Qweniar, Tomtem Elbereth, Grome PortugalAndrast Humans, Orcs Crofter, Gru'umsh CumbriaBellaruss Humans, Trolls, Dwarves Balance, Morvana RussiaBurning Lands Pyrokin Kakatal BabyloniansCatalonia Humans Light, Mallan SpainDurholme Humans Balance, St John DurhamEstonia Humans, Dwarves Mallan Baltic StatesFrance Humans Humact, Ishmund FranceGaul Humans n/a GaulHansa Humans Astalon DenmarkHellenia Humans, Dwarves, Hydrokin Balance, St John, Sordan GreeceHibernia Humans Crofter IrelandKarelia Humans, Dwarves Morvana Baltic StatesMagyar Humans Vivamort Romania and HungaryNorsca Humans, Trolls, Dwarves Morvana ScandinaviaOgrelands Ogres n/a MongolsPersia Humans, Ogres n/a TurkeyPictlands Humans, Orcs n/a ScotlandRoma Humans, Dwarves Mallan, Astalon Italy

The Roof of the World Qweniar Arial The AlpsTutonia Humans Light The Holy Roman Empire

FAQ

Q: So, there’s no…

A: There’s no Arabian-style civilisation in TT’s world (the Pyrokin really are more Ancient Babylonian), no Native Americans, no Aztecs, no Indian subcontinent, no Japanese, etc.

Q: I thought TT was a medieval world?

A: Really, it’s far more 1600s in it’s setup, with occasional lapses into ancient history in places like Agypt and the Burning Lands. Technology (barring gunpowder) and Society are more like the early renessance than the Dark Ages.

Q: What about the polar cities?

A: The Polar cities are a rumour. Urth – being flat – doesn’t actually have any poles. And if it did, then such cities would be so cold as to be uninhabitable (Qwneia feel the cold just like anyone else). If you want to know the Truth, track down one of the gateways to them and go have a look. The fact that they have Gateways to reach them should give you a clue as to where they really are.

Q: Why is there a Horizon?

A: Because we say so.

THE OUTER PLANES

<This section attempts to explain all those odd outer dimensions that plague the gameworld. It is only known in this much detail by scholars who’ve sunk 5 or more Xp into appropriate background skills, but is included to give you, the adventure writers and players, an idea of what’s going on>.

In-character, no-one is quite sure how the various outer planes fit together and relate to one another. Various schemes are proposed by various scholars, but ultimately no-one can prove their pet theory or disprove the pet theories of others. So we’re not even going to bother trying in this brief list – if you can figure out from this how they actually do fit together (and it’s in the ref folder), then more power to your elbow. It doesn’t mean you can prove it IC, though. In any case, as all the planes are infinite in size and any plane can be reached from any plane, it really doesn’t matter.

Planar theory holds that Urth and it’s sky (the stars, moon, planets and sun) are the “Prime Material” plane – so named because it is assumed to be at the meeting point of all the others. The various outer planes can be divided into four broad types – Pocket, Astral, Spiritual and Elemental. Across those definitions, planes can be termed “near” or “far”, being a relative measure of how removed from the Prime Material they are in terms of accessibility. Note that these aren’t measures of any kind of distance – for all the inhabitants of Urth know, the Paraelemental planes could be nearer to Urth than the Elemental ones, but as the Elemental Planes have a long and storied history of being contacted and travelled through, they are termed “near” while the Paraelements are “far”.

All planes are said to be surrounded by a “Veil”, the invisible barrier that separates that plane from all the others. The Veil of each plane is different, and each Veil is differentially strong or weak depending on which other plane is being accessed by a being crossing it. This causes “routes” to appear, wherin it becomes easier to travel to, say, Arcadia via the Dreaming rather than straight to Arcadia because the Veils between the Prime Material and the Dreaming and the dreaming and Arcadia are much weaker than the one between the Prime Material and Arcadia. Veil strength can and does change, either by unknown natural process – the Veil between Urth and Arcadia has been weakening in the last few centuries – or by deliberate design such as the Ritual of Elemental Soul (which essentially punched great holes in the Veil between Urth and the six Elemental Planes). The Veil between a world and another world is, however, always the same strength on both planes and always the same no matter where in those planes you are.

Planar travel is, now that the Elemental Lords have banned the practice of Gating, a tricky prospect as neither Spirit nor Magic use offers a way to the transfer of the caster. Mages summon things from other planes all the time – that’s all a spell is, after all – and Gods send spirits to Urth from their home planes. The two easiest ways to achieve a little mind-broadening travel are to fall asleep – for the minds of sleeping sentients always go to the Dreaming no matter which plane their bodies are on – or to die, in the which case the Soul and Mind of the being travels through the Dreaming, into Limbo and then either into Oblivion or into a Spiritual Planar afterlife. Going places while you’re alive and awake, not to mention taking your body with you, is a little harder. Mathmagics and Ritual Magic can both open actual holes in the Veil between worlds, creating a point – a “shallowing” – at which both planes merge together and an unwary individual walking through could end up on one or the other. Such things are rather unrefined, though, and most Planar travellers create more defined Portals that flip a being crossing the threshold into the other plane. Note that there’s nothing to stop things on the other side coming the other way unless specific measures are taken in the Ritual or Mathmagical equation governing the portal.

Most Portals in TT’s gameworld were created during the Age of High Magic, but some rare ones date back much, much further – the Dragon Lords built great Gateways that still survive. Note that it isn’t just the inhabitants of Urth that can build them, either – from the Illithids (or even, some say, the Dragon Lords) to the G’lomtuu and the Beastmaster, beings from other planes have crossed over to Urth without waiting to be invited. Portals to Arcadia, the Plane of Shadow, Gehenna, various Pocket Realms, the Land of Fiction, the Plane of Song and others all exist in the immediate (as in, within a week’s ride) of Durholme. If you know where to look and you’re feeling brave.

There are still mysteries undiscovered in TT’s multiverse, however – what lies beyond Origin and Oblivion is one (perhaps whole other multiverses), where the odd “parallel worlds” that sometimes appear come from, or what medium the beings said to have travelled through time have moved through. Time moves at the same rate on all the planes (though it should be noted that some Astral planes have a habit of distorting a person’s perception of time, so it appears that they have been there more or less time than they have) – a person going to the Plane of Fire for a week will find a week has passed when they get back to the Prime Material.

“Metaplanes” are those worlds that appear to contain several of the other worlds – All the Spirit Realms appear to float “inside” the larger metaplane of Limbo, for example. If a traveller is forced out of a plane for whatever reason, that traveller will usually (but not always) be dumped into the Metaplane corresponding to the type of plane they were in. The destruction of a Plane is a rare event, but has been known to happen – Spiritual Planes are destroyed if the God governing them dies, for example – and dumps those inside if it does not kill them outright. Despite there being four types of plane identified by scholars (five including Metaplanes), there are only three Metaplanes – Limbo, the Dreaming and the Prime Material itself.

LIMBO is the Metaplane most commonly reached, as it lies “around” Pocket Realms and the Spiritual Planes – both of which are, in the experience of explorers, the most likely planes to eject the unwary out or be destroyed. Limbo is made up of raw, unformed energy – swirling semisolid ephemera that varies randomly in texture, temperature or opacity. Limbo has one major axis of direction – “Down” or “Up”. The further a traveller moves “Up”, the more energetic the Limbo matter becomes, but the Limbo matter – and anything that is in Limbo, including the traveller – always moves “Down” in a strong current. The current can be fought against, but not forever, and travellers stuck here will fall to Oblivion very quickly. At the “top”, the limbo matter becomes so energetic as to be a light so bright it can’t be looked at directly and is named “Origin”. At the “bottom” is a black void named “Oblivion”. Because the experience of floating in Limbo and looking toward Origin is best described as lying underwater at the bottom of a well, Limbo is also commonly called “The Well of Souls”. Because of it’s unformed nature, it is also commonly nicknamed “The Vortex”, “Chaos” or “The Void”. One further danger to travellers – no one has ever reached it and returned, but by common agreement of the few planar scholars that exist on Urth, the Abyss from which Demons come lies somewhere beyond Limbo. If you meet another being on the road, be very careful to check who and what it is.

The PRIME MATERIAL lies “around” the Elemental Planes and is amply described elsewhere.

The DREAMING lies “around” the Astral Planes, and is entirely reactive – the experience of a being in the Dreaming is entirely generated by that being’s mind, as the Dreaming forms itself into tailor-made worlds around the traveller. The Dreaming’s planes are much easier to reach than, say, the Spirit Planes are from Limbo, and Shallowings form around a traveller that concentrates on a particular destination.

The three Metaplanes are unusually well connected to one another. Beings travel to the Dreaming every night without realising it, and Shallowings between Limbo and the Dreaming abound.

ELEMENTAL PLANES

The Elemental Planes are all comprised of one or more of the six Elements, and populated by beings which are made out of the same energies as the plane – and appear to be extensions of the plane in some way. The more Elements are included in a plane, the harder that plane is to reach and the less numerous are it’s inhabitants. The Planes made up of only one element are by far the most well known, due to Mages using them for spellcasting, and are just called “The Elemental Planes”. Planes comprised of two Elements are called “Paraelemental Planes”, Planes comprised of three Elements are called “Quasielemental Planes” and no one has ever found a Plane made of 4 or 5 Elements. The Plane made of all 6 is of course the Prime Material. The fewer Elements a Plane has in it’s makeup, the more dangerous to an unprotected traveller it is – the Elemental Planes kill anyone not employing mystical defences, while the Quasielemental Planes can support humanoid life (at least, until the natives get them). While, mathematically, there should be 6 Elemental, 15 Paraelemental and 60 Quasielemental Planes, in practice only a handful of them have ever been encountered. The following, then, are the best-known Planes in the books of Durholme’s scholars.

The Six Elemental Planes of Air, Darkness, Light, Fire, Earth and Water are all well documented, and now that the Elemental Lords and Titans have banned access to their Planes by the inhabitants of Urth, universally deadly.

Of the Paraelemental Planes, two are especially well known to Durholme and four more have been encountered (or creatures from them have been encountered) in living memory. Gehenna is the Plane of Darkness and Fire, and less than a decade ago was the home-in-exile of an Elemental Titan of Fire that sought to usurp Kakatal’s throne. Since that being’s destruction, Gehenna has been invaded by Demons (who apparently find the pools of shadow and the fire raining down from the sky quite homey) and is hostile to explorers from the Prime Material. Shadow is the odd Plane of Light and Darkness, with numerous Shallowings to the Dreaming and the God-Plane of Luca. Shadow has a varied ecosystem of bizarre creatures (many of the predators are invisible) and is used as a shortcut by Elementals from the planes of Light and Darkness who are attacking the other side. The Plane of Smoke (Air and Fire) was until recently the home of the Human mage Maravannus, who used the Plane to build his “Quasit” servitors. Aside from those three, Paraelementals of Magma (Fire/Earth), Ooze (Water/Earth) and Ice (Water/Darkness) have been sighted in the unclaimed lands around the Palatinate, leading some to suspect that undiscovered portals to those realms lie somewhere out in the wilderness.

The Quasielemental Planes are far less known, and the veil between them and the Prime Material nearly insurmountable. The inhabitants of the Plane of Light, Darkness and Water (who called themselves, or possibly their plane, or maybe both, “G’Lomtuu”) started staging raids on the Prime Material for their own inscrutable reasons in 1282 DR and just as mysteriously stopped less than a year later. The Plane of the Daedra (who are apparently a race of Demons that had come to inhabit that realm) was emptied by the Dragon Lords just before their death, and the entire population vanished without a trace.

SPIRITUAL PLANES

The Spirit Planes (the realms of the Gods and Demons that float in Limbo) differ from the Elemental Planes in that they are made of Souls, not Elemental energies, that the Planes themselves are alive and thinking beings (the Plane of Ishmund, for example, is Ishmund) and that they are far less stable. Shallowings were always common in the God-Planes, but with the formation of the Pantheons entire regions of each God are beginning to merge into the other Gods in the Pantheon, such that if it continues unchecked the Gods will merge together into two and then (as Balance is part of both Pantheons) one God. The “populations” of the God Planes are the Souls of the dead faithful of that dead and the spirits created from it’s own substance by that God. Often, it’s hard to tell the difference.

One other Spirit Plane exists, not that anyone has ever managed to reach it – somewhere deep in Limbo lies the Abyss, home of the Demons. While Demonic forces have spread into several other planes – including Gehenna and parts of the Dreaming – and “gone native” there, forming entire new races, the Abyss houses those Demons that remain in their “natural” state.

ASTRAL PLANES

The Worlds beyond the Dreaming are not very well documented, as they lack the immediate “like Urth” of the Pocket Planes or the fundamental ties to one of the common forms of supernatural power of the Elemental or Spiritual Planes. Shallowings among the various Astral worlds are common and in constant flux, and it is hard to tell when one is in a Plane, the Dreaming or somewhere else. The best-known Astral world is Arcadia, the home of the Fae, which appears to be as much a character in it’s own story as the Fae themselves are. Different each time it is visited, Arcadia remains enigmatic and often deadly. At the centre of Arcadia lies The Grove, which may or may not be an entirely separate Plane. Other astral worlds form around concepts – the notorious Land of Fiction, the portal to which (in Rovac) was thankfully destroyed, is a prime example, as is the World of Song.

POCKET PLANES

Pocket Planes are those worlds that have been deliberately created through Ritual magic or Mathmagic by diverting Ley Energy out of the Prime Material into Limbo. Unlike true Planes, they are finite in internal dimensions and are “easier” to destroy. The worlds themselves are built according to the design of whoever made them – some appear much like Urth, some are endless passageways and rooms, some do not obey the laws of physics and – when their creators are still alive – many can be altered at will by their masters, who set themselves up as little Gods. Most Pocket Planes have portals built at the point where their feed ley lines have been forced across the Veil, and some incorporate portals or Shallowings to other Planes within their design. The best-known Pocket Plane is the Plane of the Dragon Lords, which displays what happens to a Pocket Plane that loses it’s connection to Urth – the Dragon Lords were sealed into their private domain by the Elemental Lords and the ley lines running into it severed, which caused the Plane to drift off into Limbo where it began to slowly fade away – the entire Plane started to fall apart and turn into a vast Shallowing to Limbo until a connection back to Urth was inadvertently formed, allowing the Dragon Lords back into the Prime Material. Other Pocket Planes include the “Coliseum” (the mysterious creator/ruler of which kidnaps adventurers once a year to compete for prizes in gladiatorial combat) and the “Three Kingdoms”, constructed in the Age of High Magic as a sort of “junction” between the Prime Material, the Dreaming and Limbo (and destroyed by Torloth and D’Rhule of Durholme).

FAQ –

Q: What about “The Plane of Law” and such?

A: Such things, if they exist, would be very minor Astral Worlds. TT’s multiverse isn’t ethical in it’s basis – there’s no good/evil axis of planes except in the Astral Worlds where such concepts are made.

Q: But some of the Elements are good…

A: No, they really really aren’t. Elbereth is every bit as Alien and uncaring as Lloth and Kakatal are. If anything, all of the Elemental Planes are “Evil”, in that they don’t care about Urth except as something to fight over.

Q: Where’s Sigil?

A; As you’ve probably noticed, TT’s Outer Planes really aren’t the same as D&Ds. No going to the 6th plane of Tartarus for you.

Q: So Demons come from this Abyss thing. What about Angels? And don’t tell me they don’t exist ‘cause I saw one on an adventure.

A: They’re Spirits – specifically more-powerful-than-usual Spiritual servitors created by the Gods to do specific tasks. Which means that yes, Vivamort and Sordan have “Angels” that serve them. Angels are usually made from the Souls of the very Devout priests of that particular God.

Q: My race comes from a world every bit as “real” as Urth.

A: Your race actually comes from a Quasielemental Plane and is in denial. Cope.

Q: What about Time Travel or Parallel Urths?

A: You’re not cleared for that, soldier. Yes, it does exist, but… think of the entire TT multiverse as laid out above as being one Unit. What lies before Origin and beyond Oblivion are each one Unit as well, making a total universe of three units size. THAT entire assembledge is one triple-Unit. And is itself one subset of something even bigger. Which is a subset of something even bigger. And so on. Time Travel and Parallel worlds operate through these other layers, about which a TT character simply will never ever know.

The Underdark

Oh, the Underdark. The sodding Underdark.

An IC guide to those caves and tunnels beneath Urth’s surface is being written as of Xmas 2003/2004, but this brief thing should give adventure writers an idea.

The Underdark is the catch-all term for all the cave systems below Urth. While it’s easy to think of the Underdark as a vast, all-connective thing, in fact it’s only there in a relatively few places, and the different regions are not usually connected. A Drow citadel beneath Wessex, for example, that wishes to send emissaries to another citadel beneath Durholme must send them above-ground for about 75% of their journey, as the tunnels between them simply don’t exist.

The Underdark was originally just large pockets of cave systems, but it has greatly expanded in the last four millennia. The Dwarves carved great underground cities and connected them to each other (where possible) and with the natural caves. The Drow then moved into those Caves while Human cities grew over the Dwarven ones, spreading their own great sewer systems beneath them. The Dwarves went into decline, the Drow occupied the lower Dwarven citadels, the Vetch appeared in the Sewers and fought the Drow for ex-Dwarven territory and the Illithids appeared in the very deepest caves.

An example is probably best: Let’s take the Underdark beneath Durholme.

Durholme sits on top of a vast Sewer network – the last remnant of the Age of High Magic city that declined and was finally destroyed by Furnock. These Sewers are mostly free of monsters on their uppermost levels, though there is a Vetch community living in the lower pipes. Beneath the sewers – and breaking into them in places – are levels of caves that stretch beneath and to the west of Durholme, occupied by Drow. Beneath those are deeper caverns occupied – it is rumoured – by Illithids.

Complicating matters somewhat are the endless wars for territory that take place below ground – as space is so limited – and the fact that much that should have been forgotten remains intact down there. Portals to the Paraelemental Plane of Earth and Darkness – which physically resembles the Underdark writ large – are common, as are gateways to the Plane of Darkness. Monsters only whispered of in the surface world – Beholders, Deepspawn and so forth – may well exist in isolated regions.

A Brief History

The True History of TT’s world is a long a complex thing, which is sadly far too full of spoilers, secret information and plot hooks to be allowed out of the ref folder. A Number of IC Histories should (by now) be doing the rounds, all of which go into greater detail than this basic timeline.

What follows, then, is what a person of an average education will know about the past. As such, it is heavily skewed in terms of accuracy towards the last two Ages. If you feel your character should know more, then the ref team will be only too happy to hear your justification and let more of the 40+ page Master Timeline out of our bag.

Note that your Elven / Dwarven characters are NOT from Atlantis / The Roma Empire. Even given the long lifespans of those races, it’s still several generations ago. Given an average lifespan for, say, a High Elf of 250 years, a Generation of High Elves can be assumed to be about 150 years. So your High Elf character’s Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Granddad was present at the Ritual of Elemental Soul. Your character wasn’t. Your character didn’t even live through most of the Dark Age.

Note also, that vast chunks of this history are flat-out wrong. Such is life.

The Empire of the Dragon Lords

Stretching from an unknown point in the past to dusk on the 12th June -3890 DR (the date and time of the Ritual of Elemental Soul, which is why it’s so well recorded), this period in history is dominated by the Val’ha’ruh, the Mathmagical spirit/beings more usually called “The Dragon Lords”. The Dragon Lords themselves mostly live on their own pocket plane, but vast temple complexes in Atlantis, Agypt, Hellenia, the Ancien Empire and (it is rumoured) the very far North serve as homes to individual Val’ha’ruh. The Elves of the time are all True Elves, and while the majority of the population live on

their homeland of Atlantis some are found all over the world acting on the behalf of the Empire which has Elves as the most favoured of the Val’ha’ruh’s servants. The Dwarves live across Europa and are wholley subsumed into the Empire by the time recorded history starts. Humans, Trolls and Ogres are still living as hunter/gatherers in their native lands largely beneath the Val’ha’ruh’s notice. The Urca, a green-skinned race of druids and farmers, live in Albion. Dragons are more common than they are now, and serve as the Val’ha’ruh’s personal servants and enforcers. Legends have it that other races, now forgotten, existed but were wiped out. There are no Gods, no Mages and no Mathmagicians other than the Val’ha’ruh themselves – the only form of magic known is Geomancy.

In – 4050 DR, Besheba (the Dragon Lord ruler of Atlantis) brutally puts down a protest by some of her Elven servants on the behalf of some race that Besheba has taken against. The race the protesters were concerned with isn’t remembered, but the execution of the protestors sparked the Rebellion, which at the time was extremely small and ineffectual.

In – 3992 DR, Besheba has an Elven woman named Toroni executed as a member of the Rebellion. Toroni’s father – Roerchrect – is the general of Besheba’s army, and he is so incensed that most of the army goes with him when he goes to join the Rebellion. Elven histories attribute many odd things to Roershrect, most of which – that he had two Dragons as bodyguards, that he was not really an Elf, that he was of gigantic stature and could level mountains with a blow – are patently not true. Regardless, he did exist, and he did unite the Rebellion into a proper force. The Rebellion manages to ritually free a handful a Dragons from Val’ha’ruh control, but are still devastatingly outnumbered. Fighting a fighting retreat to the centre of Atlantis where they perform the Ritual of Elemental Soul, the Elves sell their souls to the beings living in the Elemental Planes in return for magic. The Elemental Lords – and armies of Elementals – pour through into Urth and the Rebellion strikes back towards Atlantis’ capital. Roerschrect (now a Pyrokin) is granted Kakatal’s Sword by the Lord of Fire and kills Besheba with it, though he falls into a coma in the process. The other Dragon Lords see Besheba’s death and fall back to their pocket plane to put some plan into action, but the Elemental Lords sever that plane’s connection to Urth and banish them to Limbo. What the Dragon Lord’s plan was, no one ever manages to find out (though it involved the gateway from their final 3YGB appearance).

The Fall of Atlantis

The Elves who took part in the rebellion – now divided into six Elemental subraces – declar themselves heirs to the Empire and performed mass executions of the “True” Elves who had fought on the Val’ha’ruh’s side. Mages became common among the now-Elemental elves. The other races remain much as they were during the latter Empire, though the Dwarves become increasingly rebellious. With Roerschrect in a coma, the Elves reconfigure their society on Elemental lines and build a new capital city. Eventually, the king of Atlantis (whose subrace depends on which subrace’s legends you believe) becomes increasingly despotic, and enforces a caste system that excludes the Drow from all but the worst jobs (which, if you’re not a High Elf, might give you an idea of just which type of Elf he was). When the Pyrokin try to remind him that he only rules in Roerschrect’s stead, he goes to the temple of Kakatal and murders the great hero of the Rebellion. The murder sparks a second rebellion, at the end of which the King curses Atlantis to Destruction if it will not follow him.

It won’t.

The island rips itself apart and the vast majority of the Elves die – the only survivors being those who could gate through the Elemental Planes and those who lived close enough to the coast to get onto ships.

The destruction of Atlantis is commonly dated as being in – 3903 DR, making the total time in which the Elemental Elves managed to live in harmony just less than a century.

While all this is going on, Demons are starting to appear for the first time, the Dwarves are expanding out from Europa and the Dragons all-but vanish. If the Dragons have a similar war between the True and Elemental subraces, humanoid races don’t hear about it. But something cuts their population.

The Elven Diaspora / Rise of the Dwarves

The Elves land in Andalucia and start to spread across the rest of the world, but find that the Dwarves aren’t in the mood to take their orders anymore. Learning Elemental Magic – the only thing the desperate Elves have to trade, other than what little Runemetal they managed to bring with them – the Dwarves grant individual refugee groups the “right” to settle in selected locations. Which are invariably the places that the Dwarves have decided they don’t want. The majority of Pyrokin see this as the slow extinction it is and head East, following the sun and hoping to find a better place to live.

They eventually settle what are now the Burning Lands. The Drow move into the areas of the Underdark not taken up by Dwarven settlements.

The Dwarves become more and more successful, as their confidence grows with each century that the Val’ha’ruh do not reappear. Eventually, the various Dwarfholds are united geographically by a network of surface roads and politically by an Empire of their own – centred on the Roma Peninsula at the centre of the known world. The Dwarves start to import Humans from the Sahara jungle as servants and farmers, the Human-populated farms helping to feed the vast underground Dwarven cities.

Roma Empire

The Dwarves record – 3100 DR as being the start date of their Empire, but do not give an end for it (several Dwarholds refuse to admit it even has ended). The Roma Empire is usually considered in three stages;

In the Early Empire, Humans know their place, the Elves are thoroughly dominated and the Urca have been forcibly removed from their lands in Southern Albion and driven off into the Wilderness to die. The Trolls resist the Dwarven attempts to settle Norsca with their customary violence. Towards the end of this period, Humans begin to question their place and anti-Dwarf agitators are rooted out in increasing numbers.

In the Middle Empire, Gods start to appear and, granting Spirit powers to their priests, draw worship from the Humans and Dwarves. The Drow multiply far in excess of the normal Elven birthrate, Illithids appear for the first time, Warpstone and Cold Iron are both discovered and some Humans – not wanting to be slaves, even as well-treated slaves as they are under the Dwarves – head East and create the “Empire of Humanity”, which in modern times is known as “The Ancient Empire”. The Dragon-Lord temples in Agypt and Hellenia start to be looted for building materials, and the vast majority of “unusual” creatures – Basilisks, Hydrae, Beholders, Beastkin, Manticores, Minotaurs, Sphinxes and so forth – appear, probably as a result of the ruins being disturbed.

At the end of the Middle Empire, the Humans still native to the Sahara – led by the Druid-priests of Malar – declare their independence and demand that the Dwarves stop logging their forest. The Dwarves ignore both announcements, the Humans resort to summoning Elementals (probably after hearing how good they are in Rebellions from some Elves) and the Human mages working for the Dwarves invent Dispels – and by extension the rest of Grey magic – as a countermeasure. The tribesmen give in and Malar, angry at their “betrayal”, destroys the jungle in retaliation.

In the later Empire, Humans are becoming more and more the Dwarves’ equals in the Empire, as the Dwarves become increasingly degenerate and their rulers increasingly inbred. Some independent Human realms – the Ancient Empire, the human cities nestled by the Dragon Lord ruins in Agypt and the Norse humans who have by now managed to come to a mutual ignoring with the Trolls – now exist. Vetch appear and take over some isolated Dwarven cities, the Drow begin to spread through the Underdark and take over more. Orcs appear for the first time – descendents of the last few remaining Urca who, facing Genocide at Dwarven hands, made bargains with Demons – and rampage through the Human settlements in Albion. When the Dwarves prove too “busy” to help, the humans declare that they have grown beyond the Dwarves’ guidance and the Roma Empire begins it’s long, slow collapse without the Human-dominated surface to connect the isolated underground cities which the Vetch and Drow pick off one by one.

Age of High Magic

In –13 DR, a Human Ritual Mage living in what is now Bellaruss becomes the first (Human) Mathmagician, and quickly recruits a Cabal of like-minded individuals to share the new secret with. The Mathmagicians seek to better their race by exploring the universe and it’s possibilities, and build a Tower in North-East Albion to be their base. The Founding of the Tower in 0 DR marks both the creation of Durholme – in the form of the support buildings and farms that move in around the Tower – and the ascendence of Humanity to rulers of Urth. The Mathmagicians research new forms of power and hand them down to the ritualists, priests and mages that serve them in the hope of being taught Mathmagics themselves. Grey magic is expanded beyond simple Dispels, the Permanency Spell is invented and handed out, causing an explosion in the number of magical items and creatures that are created. Arcadia (and by extension, the Fae) is discovered, Pocket Planes constructed in record numbers, stable Portals to strange outer planes built at apparently random (but doubtlessly Mathmagically significant) locations, Goblins, Kender and Halflings all appear for the first time and Necromancy is invented by the Mathmagician Bayazid.

The Mathmagicians vanish in 135 DR, and the Humans of Albion – who have become dependent on the Cabal – are devastated by an Orc invasion two years later. Just what caused the Mathmagicians to vanish is unknown, though it had something to do with a civil war between several factions of the reality-warping Humans. During this murky period – the vagueness of which may be due to the Mathmagical weapons used by the people involved – the “second generation” of Gods appears. The new gods differ from their forebears only in that their Human selves are recent enough to be historically recorded – It is uncertain who the first-generation God Bast was when she was a Human, for example, but Humact in life was a mortal man named Henri of Humact who came from the town that bears his name in South-East France. Two of the new Gods, however, are Hengist and Vivamort. With their appearance, Necromancy becomes available to priests rather than just ritualists, and Undead begin to be used as soldiers in horrific wars of attrition which combine with Orc attacks to smash Humanity into the Dark Ages.

Dark Ages

The Dark Ages are what present day characters think of as “the past” – a long list of Prince Bishops rule in Durholme, Necromancers raise their undead hordes, Orcs and Drow attack. Magic, Spirit and Ritual are all finally in their present-day levels of use and all but the very last few Gods are in existence. The isolated city-states begin to reunify into countries, but “Albion” is never fully reunited and some cities – like Durholme, Londinium, Yorvik and Cardyll – remain independent. This goes on for almost a millennia until…

Age of Strife

Scholars vary on which event marks the beginning of the present age – be it the near-rising of the Spirit of Armageddon in 1279 DR, the return of Bayazid, the death of Prince Bishop Hatfield, the last great siege of Durholme or the release of the Dragon Lords from their prison in Limbo. Whatever the precise demarcation, something has changed within the last decade – The world is threatened with destruction on an almost yearly basis, races unheard of for millennia reappear and vanish again, beings from outer planes fight over Urth and most – but not all – of Albion has reunited. All scholars do agree, however, that the continued survival of the world and it’s inhabitants is already against the odds, and that the probability that each June will be the world’s last is only going up.

In any case, the recent past can have a definite timeline made for it, which follows. This timeline is intended for characters that come from Durholme. Adjust and see refs as appropriate for characters of other backgrounds.

1277 – Ten years ago at time of writing, Durholme is the mighty city that it is fondly remembered as – sheltered in the shadow of the Mathmagician’s Tower, ruled over by the Prince Bishop William Hatfield assisted by Margrave Corrigan. The city’s guilds and temples are all present, though the politics between them are near-unrecognisable to a present-day viewpoint – the mage’s guilds constantly fight among themselves, the Temples of Balance and Astalon actually have the preeminance that is attributed to them, the Temple of the Seeker is a new addition to the city, barely more than a shrine, and several Temples now regarded as being of utmost importance have yet to be even heard of. In 1277, Albion is rocked by an invasion of Pyrokin from the Burning Lands, who take over most of Rovac and attempt to strike north before finally being defeated. The brief war causes bad feelings towards Pyrokin – and Red Mages – for the next few years, though as invasions mount up it is gradually forgotten. Also active for the first time is Golgul, the self-styled Necromancer King of Albion. Over the next three years Golgul will support various enemies of Durholme as an ally before finally making his own play for world domination, but in his first year of activity he is mostly restricted to being declared an outlaw by the city and engaging in wars of words with the Temple of Astalon via the medium of posters and newspapers.

1278 – The Temple of Astalon becomes increasingly draconic, taking over first the running of the city watch and then (when Prince Bishop Hatfield goes on a tour of the Palatinate) declaring Golgul a friend of the city and announcing that they are the city’s rulers. The Coup is quickly defeated and the truth learnt – Astalon has been fatally injured and replaced by a Demon Lord. The dying God is merged with a minor deity named Ziorbina, and the new God(dess) of Law begins to root out the corruption in her church. The Temple of Astalon never regains the high position it once held, though, and other religions such as Ishmund and Morvana begin to take it’s lay worship away.

1279 – Remembered to this day as the Year of War, 1279 is taken by many to be the beginning of the Age of Strife. A powerful undead named Alucard claims to be the rightful Prince Bishop and besieges “his” city in what turns into the longest siege Durholme has ever withstood before the undead horde is

finally defeated when the Scepter of the Prince Bishops proves Hatfield to be the rightful ruler. A mysterious spirit/being known as “Apocalypse”, “Armageddon” or just simply “IT” is released from an ancient casket before being defeated at the hands of Fae Dreaming Lords in a counter attack that – because it warps time – makes the precise details of what happened uncertain. Last of all, Golgul – angry at both IT and Alucard being defeated – issues a challenge to Durholme to meet at Neville’s Cross. The resulting battle sees Golgul’s army of demons defeated, but Prince Bishop Hatfield is killed by a White Balrog.

1280 – After a brief regency by Margrave Corrigan, a mission to find the person chosen by the Balance to be the new Prince Bishop turns up Leonara Ventura – living as a farmwife at the time. Xaroc dispels a demonic monolith and faces attempted attacks by the church of Azrael. Golgul makes his final attempt at domination of Albion using an Orc army but is finally defeated in Rovac by a group who, ironically, contain certain individuals who found themselves on the wrong side of Durholme’s law on several occasions. That summer is mostly quiet, marked only by a resurgence of the Iconoclast cult of anti-mage agitators, stirred up by the long string of supernatural attacks on Albion’s population.

1281 – The Iconoclast cult is wiped out by a pro-Mage society calling itself “The Aspect”. An army of Elementals besieges the city before their summoner is learnt to be the Scarlet Witch King Bayazid, active again after his banishment several years before. The city’s notables perform the banishment ritual again and the army vanishes. Durholme immediately invades Rovac in a “policing action”, sick of being attacked from dark forces that use that relatively lawless land as a staging area. That June, the second possible marking of the Age of Strife occurs when a group of Drow using kidnapped mages to power an attempted “Infinite Mana Store” succeed instead in ripping a large chunk of the Prime Material out of reality and into Limbo, where it comes into contact with the Plane of the Dragon Lords. The Val’ha’ruh trick the inevitable band of adventurers from Durholme who got caught up in the planar shift into releasing them back onto Urth, under the pretence of helping them mend the damage the Drow have done. That summer, as Torloth (one of those so tricked, now head of the Red Guild) desperately tries to warn the city of the threat the Val’ha’ruh pose, the Aspect Society gains more and more power. Walkeen – God of Trade – is killed by the Aspect, the first deicide since the Astalon incident.

1282 – Durholme is briefly flooded for no discernable reason, though the opportunity is used to have a long-needed clearout of the sewers. The Aspect (the being the Cult of the Aspect worships) finally reveals it’s existence to Durholme and demands that the city convert to it’s worship. Several other cities do so – Newcroft among them – but Durholme remains defiant even in the face of a (you guessed it) Siege by the Aspect’s forces. The self-styled “God of Magic” is tracked down in Andrast while in the midst of performing a ritual to consolidate it’s power and assassinated by a group of Durholme adventurers. In the middle of all this, an Ishmundi acolyte’s hysterical claims that she has proof that shapechanged Dragons are walking freely about the city are ignored. Though all the people she implicates mysteriously vanish from public eye. The Tomtem realms in the heart of Tutonia are enslaved by the Dragon Lords, who strip the Brown Elves they catch of their Elemental natures and drive them mad. Tomtem society never recovers from having 9 out of 10 Brown Elves driven insane. While all this goes on, three races of extradimensional beings from some odd Quasielemental planes break through into the Prime Materal. Two of them – a race of Purple elf-like beings and a race of insectoid lizardlike monsters – spend most of their time fighting one another. One of them – a race of liquid beings clad in metal armour – destroys the Galantri Magic Guilds and makes a few other scouting attacks on the North of Albion before vanishing as enigmatically as they appeared.

1283 – The main political changes this year come not from Durholme, but from the oft-ignored Kingdom of the Seven Shires, which begins to reunify for the first time since the Age of High Magic. The “Kingdom of Greater Albion” quickly swallows up Rovac, Galantri and briefly takes over Durholme itself before Margrave Corrigan’s supporters assassinate King Henry. His son Edward succeeds him, and the incident creates the understandable hatred of Albion’s king towards the rebel city. While this goes on, two beings of vast power – representatives of whatever lie beyond Oblivion and Origin – come to the Prime Material and attempt to force the city to take a side in their eternal conflict. The adventurers who deal with the situation choose Balance, and both “Donchon” and “Beastmaster” return to whence they came.

1284 – The Prince Bishop is called away on some religious duty, and the next-highest representitive of Balance on Urth – the Archimandrate of a city named Maenuth in Erin – comes to Durholme to fill in for her. It quickly becomes apparent that the Archimandrate is a heretic and Maenuth itself considers itself to be the “anti-Durholme”, balancing the city’s long history of averting the end of the world by

being as evil as they can. A team from Durholme is dispatched to Erin and – somewhat over-enthusiastically – they kill 80% of the city’s population before setting themselves up as rulers. At the same time, Furnock of Furd – long thought to be an uninteresting man despite his position as head of the Brown Guild, and for several months thought to be dead – reveals himself to be a demon and inflicts a firestorm on Durholme that burns the city to the ground. The Durholme of old is finally gone to history, and the scattered inhabitants begin the long process of rebuilding.

1285 – Durholme is beset by Vampires this year, led by the so-called “Lady” who constructs a black tower just south of the city and attempts to control all other vampires – including Xaroc. Walkeen returns (actually a Dragon Lord) as the Val’ha’ruh begin to draw up their plans for the next year. A new Elemental Lord of Darkness, “Shahaderoth”, is found to be a Dragon Lord in disguise. Finally, a powerful and insane being in the Dreaming called the Maelstrom is created/discovered by Fae calling themselves “The Mercy Guard” before being defeated by yet another group of Durholme Adventurers. One of their number – a woman named Luca – becomes the latest known person to undergo apotheosis as she replaces Morpheus, God of Dreams, when he is injured in the incident.

1286 – The Paraelemental Mage (and closet Mathmagician) Maravannus invents the Quasit – Elves who have had the non-elemental portion of their soul replaced by an elemental shard from another Elf. This year’s Siege comes in the shape of a Demon-led Orc army, who come to inhabit the Lady’s Tower (after slaughtering the Ghedrenti who had taken up shop there) and perform rituals preventing Spirit Use in the city. The Siege – known as “Megan’s Folly” after the High Priestess of Humact first hires mercenaries from Albion without being able to pay them and then collapses her own temple on top of the people sheltering inside – leaves Durholme economically ruined, and forced into the humiliation of adopting the Kingdom of Greater Albion’s currency. Vivamort performs a ritual based around the Sword of Humact – acquired by his minions from the rubble of the Temple – and the priests of other Gods perform a similar ritual based around a Mace when it becomes clear that only those faiths included in “The Sword Pantheon” retain their spirit when something drains miracles away. As it turns out, only those two Pantheons survive when the Dragon Lords kill any unprotected Gods. The Val’ha’ruh are finally defeated in circumstances which – because they take place in the Plane of the Dragon Lords – remain unclear. The Gods are quite clear on the outcome though. The Dragon Lords are dead. Oh yes. That autumn sees the Temples react to their new status, the Mage’s Guilds take the final step in cooperation and merge into one Guild, the arrival of Sebastian – the Prince Bishop’s son – and his mercenary band in the city, increased aggression from Wessex, a plague of people who – though dead – reappear as though alive and vanish again after a short, confused second lease of life, the reorganisation of the Seekers into the “Keepers of Knowledge”, bitter at their God’s death that summer, and finally the return – yet again – of the Scarlet Witch King. Who this time has given up on Durholme and is conquering the Picts instead.

1287 – The year just starting.

FAQ –

Q: So, all those ruins…

A: Let’s take the Archaeology of Yorvik as an example (not Durholme, as it’s relatively recent). Yorvik is a modern city built on the crumbling ruins of a much larger Age of High Magic city which grew out of a Roma colonial town which was built near an Urca stone circle.

Q: Uhh…

A: Oh, all right. Think of it as… the Age of Strife-era constructions are the reneassance, the Dark Ages are the Medieval period, the Age of High Magic is the Dark Ages, the Roma are the Romans and the Urca are the pre-roman Iron Age. Make any sense now?

Q: And Atlantean things?

A: Atlantis is assumed to have had kind of Incan-style architecture – the remnants of which are seen in Agypt’s Pyramids and the Burning Land’s Ziggaurauts.

Q: That Timeline is wrong in places

A: Very probably, yes. Sometimes deliberately so.

Q: That’s a bit needlessly secretive

A: Hey – we finally wrote you an OOC history AS WELL as all the IC ones. Gather together all the various versions of a past event, compare them and draw your on conlusions IC. It’s what a real historian would have to do.

L00t!

Ah, blessed Mammon. This section exists as a guide to all that “stuff” that can be picked up on Adventures. It is intended for Adventure Writers and characters with the Evaluate skill.

Money is the root of all evil, and the most common means by which the City, the Merchant Houses, the Guilds, the king of Wessex or other interested parties get adventurers to work for them. Albion has used Paper Money since the Age of High Magic (the Roma Empire used metal coins – the slang “a gold” for one unit of whichever currency is currently being used comes from back then), but the individual promising to pay the bearer the sum of X has changed over the years.

From about two hundred years ago to DR, Durholme used paper notes called “Crowns”, which were signed by the Prince Bishop and authenticated by a celtic-knot style seal on the back. When Prince Bishop Hatfield died and was replaced – after a brief regency on the part of Margrave Corrigan – with Leonara Ventura, the currency was reprinted with the title “His Grace” replaced by “Her Grace” and the authentication seal changed to the Palatinate Cross. This currency lasted up until the Devastation of Furnock, when the Palatinate of Durholme was so economically wrecked that it was forced to adopt the currency used by the Kingdom of Greater Albion – “Schillings” – which bear the name of King Edward.

The less civilised races and realms still exist on a barter system, while the countries in Europa and beyond that equal Albion in sophistication – Tutonia, Catalonia and so forth – have their own currencies that resemble Schillings.

Bricks of precious metal, Gemstones and works of art are always popular as trade goods – their value is usually high though always in slight flux. Gems in particular are often easier to carry than vast quantities of promissory notes.

Magical Materials

There exist various supernatural materials, either naturally occurring or artificial, that need to be explained. Warmetal, Alchemical Metal, Alchemical Ink, Runemetal, Cold Iron and Warpstone. In that order of rarity and expense.

Warmetal is a metal substitute created from a mixture of bone, slate and other ingredients that is then formed into objects by means of the Reshape spell. It is used by Warlocks and other fighting Mages to make swords, armour and other fighting equipment that would otherwise prevent the mage from casting. A similar mixture (created from slightly different ingredients) called “Elfmetal” is used by some militant Elf communities that cannot get their hands on other materials. Because of the way it is made, it is the intricacy of Warmetal items – and how many individual parts they are comprised of – not the raw quantity of Warmetal itself that determines how much an item is worth. A suit of Chainmail made of Warmetal is infinitely more expensive than a suit of Plate, for example, as it is made of several thousand times as many pieces.

Warmetal, however, loses it’s edge very quickly when used for weapons and must be properly maintained. A warmetal sword that is not used (if, for instance, it is buried in a treasure hoard for several centuries) won’t degrade, but one used as equipment by a mercenary will need to be reshaped at regular intervals.

Alchemical Metal is made from Silver by highly complex alchemical processes – while some Alchemists are said to be able to transmute Lead into Gold, Alchemical Metal represents an Alchemist partially transforming Silver into Runemetal. While Alchemical Metal still counts as metal for the purpose of a Mage casting, each individual piece of Alchemical Metal (minimum of an ounce) can store the Elemental energy from a single spell if empowered by the Enchant spell. The resulting Spell-store can then be triggered at the caster’s direction, and Archmages use it to make quick back-up spell effects that require far shorter vocals than normal. The rarity of Alchemical metal is due to both the difficulty in manufacturing it – requiring a master Alchemist – and the lack of any need for it (Mages with the Enchant spell are not exactly common). To the right person, though, it is extremely valuable.

Alchemical Ink is ink with Alchemical metal in it, and is used for making Scrolls. Scrolls store a spell by the caster much as Alchemical Metal does, and can be traded away. When finding a scroll, however, be very careful to check which spell is on it – a scroll casts the spell as though the scroll’s creator had, so a Scroll of Plate Self would plate the Mage who made the scroll, not the person using it. Some Mages sell scrolls of self range spells to the unwary in order to make fast money.

Runemetal is a dark silvery-grey metal (it looks like Hermatite, OOC), that was only found in deposits under the surface of Atlantis and as such only exists in the modern world in artefacts that were brought to Europa with the Elven refugees when that continent was destroyed. Most Runemetal items were traded away to the Dwarves and reforged, and most of those were later reforged again in the Age of High Magic. Runemetal has two properties of note – it does not effect a Mage’s casting in any way, such that a Mage wearing Runemetal Plate mail can still cast unimpeded, and it can store spells as Alchemical Metal does but with greater capacity – one spell per ounce of Runemetal. Because of it’s properties, it is extremely useful in the manufacture of magic items and what little Runemetal still exists is all “in use” already. It is effectively priceless.

Cold Iron – not actually Iron, but a white metal found in meteors – is famous as an anti-magical material. The metal attracts and “consumes” elemental energies, cancelling spells it comes into contact with, causing agonising damage to Elves and Fae that it touches and causing Mages who try to cast in contact with it to implode. The material has such a high melting point (so high that no one has ever managed to melt it) that it has to be hand-beaten into shape after being alchemically softened. Hence the “cold”. The Dwarves used Cold Iron rarely, most other races use it not at all and items of it can command whatever price the owner demands – Ironically, the best buyers are Elves and Fae, who often want it to make weapons for use against their own kind.

Warpstone is a greenish-black metal found deep underground that glows with a faint green light. It causes twisted physical changes in living beings that it touches, apparently at random, and can store spells as Alchemical Metal does. It is not usually very expensive (because it kills whoever has it for too long) but is the rarest magical material. The Vetch are obsessed with the metal – if it is a metal – despite the fact that they have no special immunity to it, and will attack other races to get it.

Magic Items

There are two ways of permanently binding spell or miracle effects into items, a short way and a long and hard way. Unfortunately, the short way is no longer useable. “Magic Items” (which can be Elemental, Spiritual, Demonic, Geomantic or anything else based) can be made in Rituals with the assistance of any outer beings of power that are appropriate, but the necessity of making a new ritual each time one wants to create a decanter of endless water means that such Rituals are only ever performed nowadays when the need for a sword of flange is especially dire.

During the Age of High magic, a Grey Elemental Spell named “Permanency” was researched which acted as a sort of infinite duration Extension, binding whatever spell it was cast on into place forever. Items were manufactured which incorporated Mana stores (so the spell could be recharged) and the Permanency spell cast as the last step in making the item. The Matrix for Permanency is lost (though Xaroc allegedly has a copy somewhere in the Mathmagician’s Tower) so the spell only survives in scrolls. Which are used up when cast.

So, Elemental Based magic items – if they date from the correct time period – may have been made entirely by Elemental means, while all other magic items (including all those with Spiritual effects) are the product of some Ritual Mage’s long hard research. Because it’s so hard to create them (even in cases when Permanency is used, the spell still needs a spellcaster so powerful as to be beyond player character level) Magic items are very seldom frivolous and are never uniform. +2 Swords simply don’t exist in TT’s world – every magic doohikkey out there was made by the blood, sweat and tears of some long-dead Archmage or High Priest, and they all have long histories of their uses, their owners and so on.

When creating an item for an adventure, the ref team won’t just want it to be balanced (the more powerful the item, the less likely it is to be passed, or the more likely something is to come along and steal it) – we also want to know who made it, when they made it and why they made it. Giving the thing a name would be a good idea.

Intelligent Magic Items are so because they have some being – be it a native of the Dreaming, an elemental, several Elementals or a Spirit – bound into it during the item’s creation. Most Spiritual

artefacts have the spirit of the creator inside them. A Golem is a version of a Scarecrow that has had Permanency cast upon it.

The final and by the rarest way to create a magic item is via Mathmagics – a Mathmagician can design the new Equation for whatever he or she is trying to create, and as minds are no harder to make than anything else, most Mathmagical artefacts are intelligent. Some, like the Mathmagician’s Tower, are even spellcasters themselves.