Steel Realms Setting

Steel Realms

The Steal Realms (or "Realms") is a world in constant turmoil.
Often times, things are not as they seem, the line between good and evil is blurred in the name of survival and/or conquest. Light battles darkness, death battles life, old struggles with new for the hearts and minds of all. In the midst of all this there are those just wishing to live peacefully.
Politics, languages, cultural differences and vast distances and economics drive a wedge between
races and nations, despite the common foe they face night and day. It is an age where heroes are made overnight and die in epic battles. Any kind of character can find adventure in such a world, as before long it is just as likely to seek them out.

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Overview

The Realms have been at war for thousands of years. Dundaria in the north is controlled by the Lich Kings, where
winter covers the land perpetually and only the dead walk there. Synedcia in the south was overrun long ago by hell-spawn, the land blasted and its inhabitants butchered or scattered. In their blind drive for conquest, the lords of darkness made a series of impassible barriers where their allies cannot pass. It is mostly held by nomadic bandit lords. Some small nations near the coast have managed to stabilize and grow in the last millenia, some lead by the remnants of the old nobility but mostly by those hearty and adventurous souls wishing to carve out their own stake.
The fallen east is dominated by the Dark Lands.
This is a land covered in dark clouds and rain, where the sun is not allowed to shine. Nature is twisted and sentient creatures that once fell upon the followers of light are exiled to under pain of death. The lords of darkness shelter their own, banned from the light of the sun under the sun-bane (All Orrish races are under the ban of the sun-bane –
for them, and the trolls of the Dukat and even some cursed humans and others, the light of the sun will burn them alive). It is a land in which only the
strongest survive and every day brings sorrow, death and despair. The Orrish – goblins, orks, half-bloods of all manner of twisted natures – compete in a culture rampant with murder, rape, cannibalism and all manner of horrible religious and social practices. These creatures are lead by the priests of darkness to make forays into the lands of light, and fight against the hated light-dwellers. Vicious and without scruples (for the most part), they plot the triumph of the darkness over the light, and scheme to move the Curtain of Night westward over the mountains, submerging all life into the twisted ways of the Dark Lands.

  • The world is ancient, including mysterious eras undreamed of and unremebered when god like beings walked the land.
  • The struggle between forces that shape the world directly involve magic, faith, and monsters.
  • There are multiple races in competition for resources and they do not trust each other.
  • Magic is natural but aptitude is rare; faith is more readily accessible to the commoner.
  • PC’s are not inherently exceptional; they rise above through their actions to become that.
  • The world is not fair; beings will do whatever it takes to advance their own cause.
  • The average person just wants to live and has no agenda – they leave such to their leige and faith.
  • The common person is superstitious, illiterate, and uninformed – and kept that way.
  • ‘Darkness Waits’ – for thousands of years they have and will keep doing so until their time comes.
  • Death and Darkness stalk the land from the north and east relentlessly; peace is unknown.
  • The world needs heroes

Species Relationships

Relations between species is mostly strained. Human are the most aggressive and expansionist, and adverrtently or not manage to antagonize the other races.
The faerie races are all percieved as one, even though there are distinct differences – most get stigmatized as elves of Ynth.
They are mostly viewed with suspicion, expecially by the Ducateon who cannot abide the vast space of the plains and lack of walls or boundaries this race lives with.
Half elves are treated the worst of all. They are despised by elves as inferiors, and hated by humans as mongrels.
Their appearance is pleasing to neither race. The Skraelings are but a small portion of the population of the realms – stable, but small.
Their folk are loved everywhere for their pleasant disposition and inoffensive, child-like appearance. The Grollen have the worst time of it. Their lands are slowly vanishing.
Humans and the elves of the plains take more and more. The Grollen lack the sophistication, the planning,
and the unity to preserve themselves for long against a combined incursion and competition. As such, they view all other races with suspicion,
especially because their natural talents at warfare make them an over-exploited commoditity.

This is to link the settings for the mid stage of development of the iVerse (linked and interrelated continuum's).

Steel Realms Material Index