Shardworld/Summary
Elevator Pitch
The Shardworld is an inherently broken place. Manyfold shards of existence hang suspended in the primordial weave of creation, intersecting and colliding in ways incomprehensible to the perspective of mere mortals. The central axis of Shardworld is the Prime Material shard, the cosmic weight holding all of reality in pl- yes, that's where we are. Try to keep up. Where was I? Ah, yes. The Prime Material shard, or The Continent by the lexicon of most peoples, is linked to every other shard, the land itself pulled and warped by the dimensional energies at work upon it. The only reason it hasn't been ripped apart yet is the sacrifice of the Wyrm. His corpse fills most of the pathways between worlds, stoppering the- It happened a long time ago. Yes, before even I was born, young one. Before the 1st age. Ah, well that brings me to my next point. The Continent is in constant flux, and many ages have came and went before us, empires and- Well, what age we're in depends upon how you measure these things. By the metric of human empires, we're in the 7th age. As I was saying...hmm..ah, empires and energies rise and fall according to the vagaries of Fate. The influence of the other shards waxes and wanes, bringing icons to power and casting them down- An icon is just the word us scholarly types use for a being strong enough to survive or leave a legacy across the ages. They're the closest it gets to a constant in our world of flux, outside the gods of course.
Why yes, icons can die. The High King was assassinated at the end of the last age, and the descendants of his Low Kings are still jockeying for the power to lead humanity. Most icons don't last longer than an age. Beings of such power tend to take issue with the existence of equals. The conflicts of icons have been the driving force behind history through all the ages. Where am I going with this? Ah, well, that takes me to the original point of this speech. If you really wish to take up the mantle of adventurer, just know that The Continent is more dangerous and volatile than it has ever been. Two new icons have arisen to make their place in the 7th age. The truce between mortal kingdoms strains beneath our own conflicts and the machinations of other icons. Our world is inherently broken, and it seems to crack more and more with each passing year. If you think you can journey out into the conflicts raging across the world and start fixing things...may Fate guide your hand, young one.
Campaign Themes and Styles
Obviously, any Shardworld campaign is going to derive a lot of influence from the system and setting it's (loosely) based on, 13th age. By extent, it takes a lot of influence from the d20 legacy that influenced 13th age. So yes, there are dragons, but they range from the classic scheming loner to the likes of The Gold Prince, one of the Low Kings who rules his own human kingdom. And there are dungeons, but some of them are living ones that tunnel up through the earth to break open and spill monsters across the surface like a bursting boil.
Thematically, any Shardworld campaign is going to revolve around how the PCs relate to the icons and influence their struggles. Beyond that, individual themes will vary from adventure to adventure and campaign to campaign, although the fantastical and shifting Continent does lend itself to exploration.
Player Options
Racially, Shardworld diverges from the classic D&D arrangement. Player racial options include: Humans- You know the drill. Shardborn- Human sub-races influenced by another shard of energy. The seven Shardborn sub-races are the four variants of Genasi, Dawnborn and Duskborn (aasimars and fetchlings, respectively), and Demonblooded(Tieflings). Mechanically, these are all their own race. Wyrmspawn/Dragonics- Humanoids made in the image of the Wyrm, spawned by the energy of his sacrifice taking mortal form. Myklings- Bizzare fungus people, originally a servitor race of the elves, left behind when their masters all vanished from the continent at the end of the 4th Age.
