Campaign Guide

Campaign Basics

Lorithandar is a world drawn from many different sources including classic fairy tales, fantasy novels, comic books, role-playing games, collectable card games, and movies.

The world strives to be a canvas for epic storytelling. Each player’s character in Lorithandar is a special mortal called “Fated”, one among hundreds of thousands who are destined to have an impact on the world. While your character may begin as a farmer or sellsword, as a Fated they are destined for greatness. The nature of that greatness is up to you. Fated begin play with higher statistics and skills than an average person along with fantastic powers common men can only dream of. Fated are drawn to each other, and their power draws other forces as well; helpful, deadly and benign. A Fated mortal will never live an uneventful life, both a blessing and a curse.

The World

Lorithandar is a special place that is 11-12% larger than Earth with less of an axial tilt, with fewer and less intense seasons. The equatorial belt is larger than Earth, and the southern pole is less cold, while the northern pole is a frozen wasteland beyond anything on our world that never sees warmth. The world is surrounded by two moons, one is constantly in the shadow of its brighter and larger sister. The smaller “dark” moon is considered evil aspected and often attached to chaos and death in regional superstitions. The planet itself has large amounts of water with equally large land masses, although the two largest land-masses were a singular gigantic continent as recently as 4300 years ago when a cataclysmic event during the God War, called the Sundering split the continent leaving a huge rent, and over millennia of continental drift the two land masses have separated by the Narrow Sea.

Main Article: Regions

The People

Lorithandar is home to many sentient species, each with their own detailed history stretching back many tens of thousands of years; in some cases to the creation of the planet. There is an overriding history of racial intolerance and war and much of the timeline is broken up by these massive conflicts.

Main Article: Organizations

Magic

The heart of Lorithandar is magic. Magic is everywhere in Lorithandar, used by farmers to make their crops grow, by armies as a weapon of war, and by each character in some way. This does not mean that every character you play is some form of wizard. Your character may have no understanding of magic or the complicated spells and rituals used by Mages and Sorcerers, but the energy of the world fills them affecting their skills. A trained blade-master will eventually be capable of feats with a sword beyond what should be physically possible. Magic infuses each person in a different way. The way magic infuses your Fated character is selected by your choice of Source.

The Ley

The ley is the channels and networks of the magic throughout the world. Each ley type is different, but all ley can be thought of to be the boundaries between things. These boundaries are not just the physical or visual surface boundaries, but the boundaries undetectable except through training, study, or experience.

• Prime ley is the boundaries between space and time
• Life ley is the boundaries between living things or living things and their environment
• Earth ley is the boundaries between the matter that forms physical objects
• Fire ley is the boundaries between heat and the lack of heat (cold)
• Water ley is the boundaries between moisture, and within the moisture pools
• Air ley is the boundaries between the mixtures, flows, and currents of the gasses
• Mind ley is the boundaries between self-awareness and not

Every existing thing, event intangible things, has at least some ley passing through it, along it, within it, and near it. Some places ley can surge and form massive ropes blending all ley, transferring energy in a continual redistribution around the world and universe. These massive ley lines are different from the more intricate or infusion of ley lines otherwise, and can be thought of as more like the excess draw-off of the minor ley, collecting into streams which form rivers which run among nexus powers.

Characters

Each player will be taking on the role of a Fated… someone gifted (or cursed) with the ability to impact the world and granted powers above and beyond the common man. Fated are something common citizens of most races are aware of, but are the subject of fear and awe, and its not something that can be easily detected. Some academics or channellers in service to Kronos (god of time/fate) catalog information about Fated and their effects on the world in a more scientific method, but this is rare.

Life in Lorithandar

Time and Seasons

Dakor, Suriloth, Arvendor and most of the humanoid races have a “new” calendar that is backdated to treat the Battle of Kynori as Year 0 for the beginning of the Elf War. Note, each year is 10 months (for each of the Blessed Gods) with 30 days for 300 days total in a year. Each month is further broken down into 3 10-day weeks.

Main Article: Timeline

The Month of Light - Alkaizer (beginning of the year); The Month of Rain - Nimway (Goddess of Spring/water); The Month of Planting - Kravnos (God of planting/earth); The Month of Warmth - Thalu (God of heat of summer); The Month of Wind - Khitar (Goddess of cool air); The Month of the Soldier - Septimus (martial celebration); The Month of Darkness - Kao (dark season, halloween); The Month of Reflection - Kronos (thanksgiving, celebration for what time has brought); The Month of Silence - Thysis (shadow of her sister); The Month of Endings - Su-Lan (end of the year)

Climate

Climate is largely impacted by region and in many ways the region is just as large a factor (or larger) than season. The further north, the more bitterly cold it becomes at all times of year, as the tilt of the planet and proximity to its sun reduces the impact of seasons.

Flora and Fauna

An even larger grouping of possible plant and animal life than exists on Earth is common in Lorithandar. Some specific mentions of plants may be found in this section, while details on animal life (with stats) may be found in the Monster Guide.

Technology

Lorithandar is a world influenced almost entirely by magic, which takes the place of technology in most cases. Certain elements of technological development that occurred in Earth’s history either did not occur due to a reliance on magic, or because things simply function differently. NO alchemical or gunpowder style munitions exist or can function in Lorithandar. Gunpowder or an equivalent analog does not exist, and while there are alchemical accelerants (oils, and such) they may not be used to create complex explosive devices, or chemical propelled weapons. It may be considered that such creations have been attempted but met with failure, and given the access to world-shattering magic, the focus has been to improve access and control over those existing methods.

Magic is common enough that even some modern conveniences are available in many areas of Lorithandar using magic as the technological alternative. Massive building projects are possible due to control over Earth magic, or Conjure spells. Mass produced food, writing materials, and textiles are commonly available in most of the top tier cultures. There are certainly medieval influences (swords, armor, and archery being common) but farmers have access to magical enhancement for their crops, doctors are often replaced with mages or priests with healing magic, and construction projects rely heavily on access to magic.

Steam power or other industrial revolution technologies are absent, however some cultures have very advanced magical alternatives. The high elven kingdom has access to massive magical airships which cover tremendous distances at high rates of speed, can carry hundreds of soldiers, and magical armament capable of destroying whole cities. The Troll Empire regularly used their draconic allies as mounts for scouting and battle. Most cultures have some magically enhanced travel capability ranging from teleportation for the wealthy/powerful to enhanced horses or magical conveyances.

When looking to introduce a new form of technology to Lorithandar, consider the race using it, their history, and magical influences, and try and identify how they would solve the problem that technology presents using their common influences.

Cultural Differences

Every race in Lorithandar has huge cultural differences based off tens of thousands of years of history. In many cases they have only the loosest tolerance for other races, if not outright hostility. Their methods of handling conflict, governing themselves, and technology will differ wildly even among a single race or region. Details on the specifics of the cultural differences can be found in the Races section.

Language

Main Article: Languages of Lorithandar

One thing that distinguishes the various cultures of Lorithandar is the various languages that they speak. Due to the presence of magic and frequent interaction between different planes of existence it has not been uncommon for language to be developed or adapted to suit various populations. For example, most of the Planar tongues have a common root in Arcadian. Due to the influence of the Faerie, the Common tongue has become almost universally known, though the some of the mortal races cling tightly to their ancestral tongues.

Economy

Main Article: Economy

To be solidified and dealt with, just some random notes so far.

• 100g is 6.8lbs

Magic items, WHEN COMMONLY AVAILABLE follow the rough guide for EACH magical effect in the item: Rank 1: 1,000g Rank 2: 3,000g Rank 3: 6,000g Rank 4: 10,000g Rank 5: 15,000g

The rank used is the casting rank, not the ability rank. All effects on the item will tend to be the same rank, however combined casting from multiple casters may create an exception.

In areas where magical items are not readily available these prices can climb ten to one hundred times higher, depending on the item, the 'market', etc...