Core Assumptions

This book is formulated a kind of Primer, an education in the world that only a few are privy to and fewer grasp the importance. Years of history and culture and growth and destruction as seen through the Pedants – people whom the Powers That Be have chosen to guide you — who have been here and there, poking and prodding the spaces and crevices of the world and brought it all back to you. In this tome you will find the particulars and useful bits of the Wyrlde laid out before you in a way that few others will ever have it given to them.

The Core Assumptions for Wyrlde are as follows.

Play Style

Wyrlde is a place where the Characters – you – are heroes. They may be epic, they may be anti-, they may be reluctant, they may be all in, but they are heroes. They chose to become something more than ordinary, something more than average and typical, someone who seeks glory, fortune, honor, and whatever else in the world that they live in.

Wyrlde’s underlying premise is “Horrific (Science) Fantasy”, with the parenthesis around the part that can mean magic, can mean physics, can mean all manner of things, including the history of the world. It is a place where the apocalypses are over, but there were several of them, and they have scarred the people.

It is a world that is filled with humor, references to pop culture and cult genre films, and emphasizes improvisation over formal planning. It can be an intense game, and there is a strong goal of having you try things that are heroic, that are all in or bust, and be aware and ready for the consequences of it. There are mature themes, a high degree of moral and ethical ambiguity, and even elements of racism and classism built into the game – but they are not Earth’s version of those things. Above all else, Wyrlde is a separate world, that does not share the history of Earth, and does not represent or speak to issues of Earth. Even the archetypes used in creating it are archetypes grounded in Wyrlde itself.

To say that the game uses “modern thinking” or “medieval thinking” ignores the nature of the world – Wyrlde is set in a place that is over a thousand years from now, in a place so far removed from earth that nothing compares – so it is a world where people may understand things like advanced agricultural practices or have regular crops that are genetically modified versions of present-day ones. They will sound a lot like us but be people of their place and time.

Lastly, Wyrlde as a campaign will involve hack and slash, comedy and humor, horror and action, mystery and procedural, and cross all the boundaries of genre – yet still be grounded in a world that is actively being kept at a certain state of growth and development by capricious and intent Powers…

The Powers That Be

There are many different beings whose mere whimsy or furious rage can have an unforeseen impact on the world. They come in many sorts and types: The Powers That Be, The Old Ones, The Powers of the World, and the Spirits of the World.

The Powers That Be will tell you that they oversee the world. They are many, but most are not personifications of something, or manifestations of some idea or concept. They each have chosen a realm of the world instead. They are just as likely to strike down an unbeliever with a lightning bolt as they are to grant them some grand and terrible power.

When they send a message, it could in person, it could involve a messenger, it might be in the form of a sequence of events, it could be dreams, omens, portents, and signs. It is always through the presence of magic granted to Clerics of various sorts. They created the Planes, and their progeny dwell within them. The Powers did not create Humans.

The Powers betrayed the people once, and this betrayal has them struggling to win back the people who have turned from them. Despite all their power, they did not make Humans. The Powers That Be are not omnipotent, omniscient, nor ineffable. They do walk among us, every day, in a thousand shapes and forms, and they are not gods of something, nor are they manifestations or personifications of anything They are simply people of a sort, like us, though they are immortal, cannot die, and they have the power to reshape everything within their hands.

The Old Ones are exceptionally Ancient Gods who were long forgotten, their names and powers and ways blended and shifted until they were erased by other, newer stories, but here on Wyrlde they found a conduit, even though their names are long forgotten. It remains a question as to if they were the ones that Created Humans, but no longer has any real meaning. They are served by some Druids, who honor and recognize them as a part of the very fabric of the word, even within their many variations. The Old Ones were once the very personifications and manifestations people expect but are so ancient and old and long forgotten that even their names are lost, and only three of them are still with any kind of real, true power – power they wield most carefully lest they become victims of the ire of others.

The Powers of the World are seven very strange people who represent some aspect of the World’s Soul, and who were inadvertently made far more powerful by the actions of the Powers That Be. The foremost among them is a woman called Chicory.

Lastly but of great everyday importance, there are the Spirits of the World. These are manifestations of the will and presence of the World itself, a particular place, a kind of space. They range from the Numen to the Dryads and Naiads, and on to the rest. Some are said to be the spirits of ancestors, others are said to be more akin to elementals or perhaps the Fae.

In terms of the System, The Powers that Be are all Greater Deities, The Old Ones are Vestiges, there are Quasi-deities who have power even over the Powers upon and within The Mortal Planes, and the Planes themselves are filled with Demigods and Denizens and their descendants and creations. Most significantly is that every plane has a duplicate dimension seven times over, with the People there subject to those being as if they were Powers themselves.

The World is Untamed

Immense City States hold most of the population in each realm. Dependent Towns supply and assist them. Villages, Hamlets, Steadings, and camps dot the countryside, the people their doing their best to carve out livings in a place where horror, raids, and more mundane terrors can happen. World does not have huge populations. Perhaps a million are allied in some way against the Foe, who number at least three million.

Between these places travel Merchants, always in armed and guarded caravan of wagons, or using the Skyships or the Train, or the Riverboats or Ships. Lone travelers fear bandits, often derived from destroyed steadings or hamlets, and the worst that could happen is being waylaid by a Dragon or a Beholder.

Something of note is that this should be titled “The World is once again untamed.” This is not the first time Wyrlde has been in this state, and at one time in the distant past, this was a world of wonders, of Teknogy, of Mekanix, and much of it was lost and destroyed by the shattering of the world and the losses of the God’s War.

The Wilde is not a safe place, and to help make it safer there are those who seek to protect and defend the world, as well as those who seek to end the threats and promote trade. And beyond them are the folks who have a desire to make a living, get rich, build skill, and experience the world. They are called Adventurers. They are Clerics and Druids, Envoys and Corsairs, Paladins and Rangers, Gunslingers and Swordmages, Witches and Warlocks, Runewrights and Vanguards, Nomads and Monks, Rogues and Bards, Luminars and Sorcerers, Warriors and Wizards. And, lest we forget them, there are also Merchants, Physics, Sages, and others who support them in their ongoing effort to make the world a better place and get something out of it for themselves.

The World is Old

The world we are most familiar with now is about 1000 years old. There is around 1500 years of stuff before that, with a third of that time spent in a war that was waged among the Powers That Be with people as the fodder for it. That time, called The God’s War, is when and where the Elfin were created, the Dwarfs came to be. It filled the world with monsters and brought Magic to the world. The remainders of the world that was lie in ruins, and there are many of them. Despite being old and despite sharing some things in common with many other worlds, it is not them. The things you know from different worlds are not true here, and if they are it is mentioned in the following. There were no Druids in groves here, there were no ancient Tibetan masters, and the armorers of this world are different from those of yours. There is a wealth of history, but it Wyrlde’s history, not that of someplace else. This is a world that has seen disasters of a magnitude unimaginable, and still persevered. It is a world where it has ended several times. It is a world where that which was is as unknown and unfathomable as what is would have been to those who walked it as the Ancients of yore.

Beyond those 2500 years lies even more – so much more that it has been forgotten and lost and buried, even the roll of years, but one thing is known: we are not the first peoples of this world.

Conflict Shaped History

The God’s War is not the only conflict that shaped history The hundred years after it were filled with surviving disasters and raids on the rag tag survivors, with some breaking away and others never even knowing there had been an end. Conflict among people led to the creation of new cities, and the developing idea that it was a great and grand Empire, but even that idea is fraught – and the God’s meddle in everything. The sky itself fell, not once, but twice, and brought with it destruction and change on a grand scale.

There are entire peoples who sole purpose is to restore the order from before the God’s War, to return the vanquished and to conquer the world. Others seek to only build their own realms, and force others into service to them. There is always conflict here, and the forces that shape it are both similar and yet not like what you may know as a player. Here there are no savage and uncivilized people, no mindless hordes. There is no Elven homeland, no dwarven stronghold, and yet there are still ills that followed the people here, and linger, fester, and hopefully will be overcome. Here there is a reason for everything, but that reason is not one mortals usually know.

This is also a world shaped by vast cataclysmic disasters, including the Skyfalls, when stones that defy every rule we know comes smashing into the world, making changes, rendering alterations, altering fundamentals, and forcing rebuilding and recovering.

The World is Magical

History says that a thousand years ago, at the Cataclysm that ended the God’s War, magic entered the world and suffused everything – but not everyone can use it. Indeed, most people are outright terrified of it. Magic is an uncontrolled thing, and no one knows who may have the ability and who may not. Magic altered the world in ways which no one fully understands, not even those who have had it the longest: The Powers That Be.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the workings of Imps and Wizards, in the ruins of the ancients warped and changed by the release of magic, in the cunning cruelty of Thyrs and Clerics dedicated to the service of old Bill Lyle.

This is not a world where one can find vast hoards of magical artifacts, for those are rare and precious and mostly lost; nor is it a place where you can find vast emporiums filled with he wonders of the magical arts. It is a place where you can see a vendor in Lyonese selling the wands his family has worked on to light hearths and boil water, to dispel the old poisons and to ward against the diseases.

Humanity

Wyrlde is inhabited by People. People is a broader term for the different kinds of beings that live in the world. Here, things are very different from other worlds you may have heard of. The Powers may not have created Humanity, but they have absolutely changed it.

Collectively, all these beings are called The People, even though many humanoids would never acknowledge that, and many humans and demihumans would agree. Perhaps the one place they can all get along.

Humanoid is not based on what they look like, but on what they come from. So, Fairy beings and the creatures of the planes and dimensions are not Humanoid or Demihuman – though they are still People.

In the ages since the God’s War, there has been a change in the peoples. Following the last Skyfall, among all of the Human and Humanoid sorts, there are new and strange hair colors, and eye colors, and even complexions that have emerged. No one knows of the humanoids having similar issues.

• Humans are the most populous, most in power, most common and typical and present of the People. They have mostly shades of brown for eyes, hair, and complexion in coloring, and are typically noted for a lower variance of height and weight than we are, five and a half to six and a half feet tall (66 to 78 inches tall). It is from Humans that all the others are descended, hence the terms for them.
• Demihumans are descended from a small set of Tribes during the God’s War, each changed by the Powers they served.
• Humanoids are descended from a small set of Tribes during the God’s War, each changed by the Powers they served.
• Semihumans come from a union within two generations with a Planar being.

To help you come to know the world better, you are going to be given a Pedant, or a teacher, who will help to guide you through the assorted parts of the world. Different Pedants will guide you in different works, and then I will return for The Codex and likely parts of the others. Note that she does not know everything, and that she, too, has biases and prejudices; that she is a part of the World and is ultimately in service to one of the Powers (even if she did not choose it). She has her own ways. But she will help you going forward.