Introduction A Brief History of the Shadowend What Is High Fantasy?

Introduction

Welcome to the Shadowend, a land of magic and mystery, where the dungeons of a hundred lost lands lie waiting for the brave, the daring, and the cunning. It is a land where the immortal ilvenkin walk in the lands of man, valiant dweorhin battle goblins in an unceasing war in the depths, and cunning gnomes uncover secrets thought lost in ages gone by.

In the lands of the Shadowend, all is new. The Second Speaking of Te, “So it begins”, undid all the gods had done before. Dragons, once confined by divine edict, regained the powers of their progenitors, to breath fire and change form. Umoth, the Sunfather, was freed from his imprisonment, and once more the gods war in heaven to prevent the immolation of the Wyrld. The Lord of Smiths regained his place in the Underhalls, weaponsmith to the gods and champion of liberty.

Seek you power? Then look to the graves of kingdoms, for of the Fourteen Treasures of the House Lands, only three are claimed today. Seek you opportunity? Then look to the west, for the Chalice of Tears has been seen in crystal Ashyntarri, and where that fell artifact goes, opportunities are laid for those willing to take them. Seek you fortune? Then look to the Shadowend Forest, for the queen of Larenyss has declared a crusade, and the man who does the most for her shall gain her hand and a kingdom.

Hie, is it magic you seek? Then look around, my friend, and find it in the vaulted halls of the deep forest, in the twisting passageways of the earth, in the billowing cathedrals of the clouds, and in the flowing channels of the sea. In the Wyrld, in the Shadowend, in you, magic is already, and to find it is as easy as opening your eyes and stretching out your hand.

A Brief History of the Shadowend

In the beginning, there was the Wyrld, and there was the Nothing. Te called for the the Elder Host from the Nothing, and they ventured into the Wyrld, walking from the outermost edges to the center. Where their shadows fell, they created races and beings in their image, though lacking in souls. These became the fiends and the celestials, the races of evil, good, law, chaos, fire, water, earth, and air.

When the Elder Host reached the center of the Wyrld, the oldest of them was filled with hatred, and determined to destroy the Wyrld. He was opposed by his brethren, and to protect the Wyrld, they killed him. They took his body, and shaped the dragons from his blood, giants from his bones, humans from his flesh, and gnomes from his organs, leaving only the heart, liver, and head. Several of the dark gods, however, stole the head of their brother, and fashioned oculuth from his eyes, dopplegangers from his tongue, goblins from his skin, sapints from his brain, and ogres from his skull. The heart was shattered and several pieces lost, but his liver, the seat of his essence, was taken back into the Nothing by Yau, who was herself uncreated by the act.

Humans and the other races were fruitful and spread over the world. The Dalerain came into being, the children of the Elder Host and mortals. Dragons thought themselves greater than their creators, and were cursed by the gods until the Second Speaking of Te.

The Host of the Dan'Si arrived in the Wyrld as refugees, bringing with them the races of dweorh, ilven, troll, and fey, among many others. Fleeing from a terror never named, the dan'si had constructed gates sufficient to evacuate entire worlds. Still, the Wyrld proved large enough for all of them, and races native and foreign found accomodations with the other, until the humans of Hielarn sought the power of the sidhe and slew the Auberon to get it. The dan'si replied by splitting the skin of the Wyrld and destroying Hielarn, and precipitating a war that ended only with the exile of most of the dan'si race to the outer reachs of the Wyrld, to the Rim where the magic flowed and eddied in accumulations of power entirely unlike that nearer the center.

No race was so skilled in that magical arts as the dan'si, though some tried. The humans that survived from Hielarn rebuilt again and again, as time and enemies within and without wore them down. The land around the great rent was tamed with landstones, magical anchors to calm the frentic energies that had been unleashed. Other humans settled the region, and the ilvenkin grew strong in the forests, finally establishing the kingdom of Illendia in the great forest known as Shadowend. Ironically, the last descendants of Hielarn also rose one last time in the nation of Nekkarn, and the two kingdoms found themselves more often at war than not, until the Hielites died of plagues they themselves unleashed, and the faerilven were exhausted. Both ancient kingdoms were abandoned to the growing human tribes, who settled the tamer lands of Illendia and the remains of Nekkarn. To the west, the Amerite Empire grew in power, finally reaching eastwards and swallowing the tiny principalities and duchies. The lands on the northeastern shore of the Torcell Seldoc, the great split in the earth, became known as the Reachlands, for the Taras Reach that stretched into the midst of them. To the north, the ancient kingdom of Honduar, allies and mediators of old between Nekkarn and Illendia, fell to foul hordes, and became the Utgard.

The Amerite Empire collapsed in chaos and revolution, taking with it the fragile and nascent kingdoms of Sarn, Asavar, Sieriven, Shalanholt, and others. Some former nobles of the Amerite Empire stayed in their Reachland estates, establishing the feuding roots of the Hundred Kingdoms. The semi-nomadic Keldruag tribes declared freedom often and early, founding the kingdom of Keldru to give themselves legitimacy and a united front. Later, the Griffon King united the protectorates north of Keldru into the kingdom of Larenyss, bordered on the west by the Taras Reach and the east by the great expanse of the Shadowend Forest, now grown over the remnants of kingdoms human, ilven, and other.

Now, ancient forces lift their heads. In Larenyss, the Snow Queen seeks to reclaim the ruined lands of the Shadowend, while nobles of the Hundred Kingdoms seek her hand by driving back the dark hordes in the forest. In the Hundred Kingdoms, wizards out of children’s tales and idle curses prove themselves true, and shift the delicate balance of power to those that claim their allegiance. And in Keldru, the cults of Rat and Snake and Spider have found footholds among the gnolls and the unhorsed, and undermine the foundations of the Rider’s Kingdom.

It is an age of heros.

What Is High Fantasy?

Within the Shadowend campaign setting, the following definition is used:

High Fantasy settings frequently...

• - have an overall high level of "magic" and/or the supernatural;
• - encompass complex and occasionally symbolic meanings, motivations, and outcomes;
• - are presented in a series or in a serial fashion, with continuity and persisted events;
• - involve a struggle between good and evil and/or order and chaos;
• - have involved cosmologies, often populated by powerful entities;
• - are populated with diverse and often powerful sentient races;
• - explore cosmic and/or unearthly questions and values;
• - include one or more journeys, quests, or other notable and heroic undertakings;
• - have a high degree of focus on the actions of the protagonists;
• - have malefic and/or consciously misanthropic antagonists;
• - and are generally serious in mood.

High Fantasy can also be called "Heroic Fantasy" or "Quest Fantasy", although within the context of the Shadowend, quests are not often encountered, at least formally. (Journeys and notable or heroic undertakings of the players' choosing remain a focal point for Shadowend campaigns, however.) Campaigns tend to be episodic and player-oriented -- or in other words, I try not to railroad the PCs, and I try to design adventures relevant to the characters.