Steam and soot winds darken the skies across above the city of Flint, and winds sweeping across it's majestic harbor blow the choking products of industrial forges into the fey rainforests that dot its knife-toothed mountains. Since the earliest ages when the people of Risur founded this city, they feared the capricious beings that hid in those fog-shrouded peaks, but now as the march of progress and the demands of national defense turn Flint into a garden for artifice and technology, the old faiths and rituals that kept the lurkers of the woods at bay are being abandoned.

The Unseen Court, the Great Hunt, and the many spirits of the land long ago conquered by Risur's kings no longer receive tribute, but they cannot enter these new cities of steam and steel to demand their tithe. The impoverished workers who huddle in factory slums fear monsters of a different breed, shadowy children of this new urban labyrinth. Even their modern religions have no defenses against these fiends.

Times are turning. The skyseers—Risur's folk prophets since their homeland's birth—witness omens in the starry wheels of heaven, and they warn that a new age is nigh. But what they cannot foresee, hidden beyond the steam and soot of the night sky, is the face of this coming era, the spirit of the next age.

Overview

In this campaign, your characters serve in the Royal Homeland Constabulary of the nation of Risur, protecting the country and its citizens from foreign threats lurking within its borders. During missions of espionage and assassination, your duty will be to root out hostile spies and pursue international conspiracies. As you learn more of your homeland's own secrets, however, your loyalties may be tested, may even be turned, and you may find that it is you whose hand controls the gears of the turning age.

Humans and Great Nations

Humans rule three of the five great nations of the continent Lanjyr. Their ascendance in the past two thousand years toppled a mighty eladrin empire and has provoked belief in doomsday millennialism among many dwarves. The campaign begins in Risur, and every PC should have a strong loyalty to the nation, even if the character does not hail from there.

Eladrin, Devas, and the Great Malice

Long ago elves known as the eladrin built an empire of magical wonders. Then five hundred years ago the death of the eladrin goddess Srasama caused nearly every eladrin woman to perish. Those few who survived are powerful matriarchs that head their own family lines in the ruins of the old empire.

Mortals present at the death of the eladrin goddess have continually reincarnated in the following centuries as devas, as if a sliver of Srasama's divine spark has granted them a semblance of immortality.

Tieflings, Technology, and Dead Magic

When the eladrin goddess died, an entire other nation became a dead magic zone, and some in that land were marked by a curse, turning them into tieflings. In the centuries since, however, the tieflings have come to rule that nation, and in the last few decades they have begun a revolution of industry and mighty science almost as powerful as the magic they lack.

Dwarves, Doomsday, and Nihilism

The major dwarven nation is bleakly resigned to an imminent doomsday, when ancient horrors will claw free from glaciers and engulf the world in a frigid death. Adherence to duty is so ingrained in their culture, however, that the dwarves continue to toil in their forges even as they prepare for the world's end.

Savages, Primitives, and Peace

Freed from the yoke of toppled dragon tyrants, the youngest of the great nations formed from an alliance of several monstrous races which now live in an uneasy peace as their rulers seek to force the disparate peoples into the modern age.

Piety and the Planes

The heavens possess an undeniable hold on the world's religions, its people, and its very structure. In Risur, skyseers believe that the movements of the night stars foretell the future and direct the fate of the world. More enlightened scholars study distant planes of elemental and temporal power to understand how the flow of their energies affects the fundamental nature of reality.

The Astral Plane, the Elemental Planes, and the Far Realm exist only as postulations, and there are countless other theories on the nature of reality. No one in this world has ever traveled to these planes, and even travel between the known worlds of the night sky is brief, with summoned beings never remaining more than a few minutes.

An Exceedingly Brief Timeline

• ~1200 B.O.V. (Before Our Victory) — King Kelland defeats the fey titans and founds Risur, the first mortal nation on the continent of Lanjyr. In the following centuries, other nations rise up throughout Lanjyr.
• 1117 B.O.V. — The demonocracy arises, its monstrous rulers enslaving the primitive nations of the north. Risur keeps it from expanding south, and Elfaivar blocks its eastward growth.
• 500 B.O.V. — Triegenes the fisherman founds the Clergy in what is modern-day Danor, overthrows the demonocracy, then dies and ascends to godhood.
• 50 B.O.V. — The First Victory, a holy war between humans and eladrin, ends with the eladrin losing much territory.
• 1 A.O.V. (After Our Victory) — The Second Victory begins as an eladrin effort to reclaim lost lands, but ends in their decisive defeat when the eladrin goddess Srasama manifests physically, and is slain. Danor collapses into chaos as the nation becomes a dead magic zone. The seat of the Clergy moves to Crisillyir, which begins to colonize the devastated lands of Elfaivar. Dwarves seize control of their own nation in Drakr.
• 300 A.O.V. — King Boyle of Risur slays the last dragon tyrant of Ber. The nation of Danor, resurgent with industry and technology, begins to contest Risur for control of the lush Yerasol Archipelago.
• 460 A.O.V. — King Aodhan is crowned in Risur. He encourages his people to pursue industry so they can fight back against Danor. Meanwhile in Ber, Bruse Le Roye unites tribes of monstrous races into a new nation.
• 493 A.O.V. — The Fourth Yerasol War ends, with Risur having lost many islands.
• 500 A.O.V. — Present day.

Setting Considerations

Overview

The baseline assumption is that your characters work for the Royal Homeland Constabulary, a Risuri organization created by King Aodhan to monitor threats to his nation, both home-grown and from foreign lands.

Every constable must have passed a background check and magical inquisition to prove his or her loyalty to Risur. These precautions allow even foreign-born citizens to serve, giving the constabulary a valuable tool in pursuing investigations overseas. Groups of constables are often assigned to pool their talents to accomplish dangerous and complex tasks, such as rescue missions, surveillance to catch smugglers and traitors, and even espionage or assassination.

In the default version of the campaign every PC should have a strong devotion to Risur, though PCs can certainly have other affiliations and allegiances that may cause complications or frictions.

Ancestries or Races

Any of the races/ancestries mentioned in the sections above are fine, but anything not mentioned should be discussed as to how they would fit into the world.

Classes

Risuri natives tend to favor arcane, martial, and nature-oriented classes. Most witches in the region tend to follow fey patrons, since the nature of the planes makes it difficult to contact infernal or far realm patrons. Sorcerers suffer an equal distribution of bloodline, with aberrant and fiendish bloodlines being far rarer than fey or elemental.

Few gods have large followings in Risur, but pockets of foreigners or native converts provide a likely source for divine classes. Druids and rangers are well-known and received, but oracles tend to be more common than clerics, since there aren't established churches to train the pious.

Magic

Only two types of magic are wholly off-limits: long-duration flight, and long-duration planar travel.

The nature of the elemental planes that feed energy into the world makes it impossible for magic to create permanent flight. Powers that grant flight for never last more than five minutes. There are no flying carpets or airships. Since the extinction of dragons, flying creatures do not grow any larger than an eagle or condor.

Likewise, despite theories that suggest it should be possible to travel to distant planets via mighty rituals, all attempts to visit any foreign world never last longer than a few rounds before the traveler is shunted back to this plane. It is possible to wander into the Dreaming or the Bleak Gate and return, but even these trips are usually only possible when the moon and stars align properly.

In Lanjyr, in addition to its value as a precious metal for jewelry and currency, gold can be fashioned into a barrier against teleportation. While characters can teleport freely carrying gold, they cannot teleport through an opening framed in gold. A creature wearing a gold ring cannot teleport or be teleported, so those wary of abduction might wear hidden gold toe rings to stymie would-be kidnappers.

Technology

While the city of Flint sits under a haze of coal soot, its streets illuminated at night by gaslight lanterns and its ferries powered by steam boilers, the majority of Risur remains at roughly a Renaissance level of technology. Soldiers carry alchemical pistols as back-up weapons, and elite fusilier units carry muskets and carbines, but aside from the occasional new rail line splitting the countryside, most citizens of Risur never see any of the new technology that is changing the world around them.

To be clear, there are no automobiles, electric lights, or flying vehicles. Most firearms still are muzzle-loaders, and rifles only exist as custom creations of innovative gunsmiths.

Character Themes

Suggested backgrounds or themes for your character. These aren't classes, and any class could participate in one of the backgrounds.

• Docker — Bohemian working man artists and performers.
• Eschatologist — Philosopher devoted to the proper endings of things.
• Gunsmith — Designer and wielder of custom firearms.
• Martial Scientist — Educated and analytical warrior.
• Skyseer — Folk prophet who sees the future in the stars.
• Spirit Medium — Contact and control spirits of the dead.
• Technologist — Design small contraptions and master complex devices.
• Vekeshi Mystic — Devoted to the philosophy of slow, proper vengeance against those who oppress the weak.
• Yerasol Veteran — Highly regarded war hero.

Ask Jake for the full write-up of any theme that interests you — there's more detail on each available.