My newsletter often approaches different aspects of the ttRPG hobby – tips, analysis, guides, and more. To help you find what you enjoy most, I'll be adding bracketed tags to future articles. This article is tagged [SETTING].
I'm currently building the Shattered Isles, a dark fantasy setting inspired by the games of FromSoftware and Bethesda, Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, Kian Ardalan’s Eleventh Cycle, Luke Gearing's Wolves Upon the Coast, and many others. While the setting guide on Itch.io is a sort of hex crawl guide, here on Substack I'll delve into its history covering everything up to the current day.
Some of this content may make it into the final product, others might not. We’ll see. My goal is to provide a complete ttRPG setting book for players and GMs. You can follow its progress and download early versions for free on itch.io: https://grinningrat.itch.io/shattered-isles.
The Eternal Night
“What follows was recorded by myself and is as close to what was found upon the Tablets of Mre in the Dreaminglands—though some Drift does peer through (as is the nature of words in Dreams). The original author is unknown, as is common for pre-Upheaval events. It is imperative that one takes the words as apocryphal—regardless of what the Sisters zealously assert in their stonewood halls.”
Ferigal, 2E438
Passage I
She was born, alone, in eternal night. She saw the void that surrounded Her and the immensity of it and in the black night She saw empty spheres, or wastelands in the vast darkness like stones at the bottom of the greatest sea.
At once She knew a secret so dark and so terrible She wept. As She did, the fallen tears glittered; each invested with light with which to see markings upon the dead worlds of those who came before.
At once She knew a secret so dark and so terrible She raged. Summoned forth then was a great and terrible Light that shone in all directions, for all time, and from this Light Her tears glowed ever brighter, and their countenance became the stars in the skies above; whose Light revealed a dead world and its secret chambers of which their dead were kept in the number of thousands upon thousands.
At once She knew a secret so dark and so terrible She loved and with Her love she perfused the dead with Light so that they may tell her what misfortune fell upon them. Of the thousand thousands, Seven rose and they did not remember that which came before. She promised to protect them and named them, one and all, Elfin.
Passage II
Of these children, there were seven: Anaelia, Faerion, Kalios, Lyros, Nyxera, Seravara, and Zilar. They were ranked by their coming and in their prowess, as such, it became that Faerion led them.
Then the Seven used their Light to restore the secret chambers and their thousand thousands, dredging those who the Light could not reach. They became the Solothi and they loved the Seven as elder siblings.
Then a Light was crafted of beauty and warmth to cast colors upon the darkened lands. Plants and animals were born of the many colors and the motion of the world was restored.
All saw Her as Mother and they called her Moon.
Passage III
Their Mother saw each of the Seven in the Way Unfathomable and spoke to them a Word:
To thoughtful Faerion was bound the Word DREAM.
To quick Anaelia was bound the Word BLADE.
To distant Lyros was bound the Word VESSEL.
To skillful Zilar was bound the Word GOLEM.
To wandering Seravara was bound the Word SPHERE.
To kind Kalios was bound the Word WATER.
And to young Nyxera was bound the Word PATH.
All saw their word and knew at once it was theirs. And from then on, even in the Latter Days of the End, whenever these words are used they are suffused with the blessings of Light.
Then upon the world the Seven raised great houses of stone and metal that captured all the many colors of the world. And the houses of the Solothi were built by them, so that they may share in the Light for all time.
Passage IV
Then the Seven were visited by a wretch of the Lands Beyond the Sea in the misted places where colors could not reach. He came to them, naked and soot-stained, in their gilded houses and bore the Word IRON upon his soul.
“In Two Words I can unmake thee”, spoke the shade and Anaelia split him in one hundred and seven ways with a single blade-stroke.
“In Two Words I can shatter your works”, spoke the essence of the shade, which had buried itself in the colors of the sunset cast long upon the houses and Seravara banished him from their lands with a spell whose words cannot be spoken.
“In Two Words I can set you free”, heard the Seven in their shared-mind where they could not excise and Kalios mused:
“A viral thought made corporeal, bearing a True Word, now is part of the fabric of our shared-mind. Shall we kill one another and begin again?”
Next spoke Nyxera, excitedly, “There may be more to this wretch and his Lands Beyond the Sea. We should traverse the mist and set upon them in the thousands carving color all the while!”
Lyros left citing words of deep discontent and shattered the crystal in his heart, ending his shared-mind connection.
Faerion was deeply troubled by the shade and later returned to his mindless quarter, where none of his siblings could reach for it was in Dream.
To his Mother he stated, “There are no coincidences, only insight.”
His Mother smiled in the Way Unfathomable and said “Insight is but one path.”
In his mind’s mind Faerion heard the wretch whisper “Are there not paths unending? What Mother would mimic cruelty as insight?”
Then Faerion felt fear and he fashioned a record with his mind in the ninth position so as not to further invite the influence of others in his writing. When he finished he had written two thousand words within which the spaces between spelled Utter Truth.
Faerion looked upon it and wept, for it was the First Beginning and the Final End and both were by his Mother’s hand.
Pronunciation Guide
Mre | Murr
Ferigal | FAIR-ih-gahl
Elfin | EL-fin
Anaelia | ah-NAY-lee-uh
Faerion | FAIR-ee-on
Kalios | KAH-lee-ohs
Lyros | LYE-rohs
Nyxera | NIK-sair-uh
Seravara | seh-rah-VAH-rah
Zilar | ZYE-lar
Solothi | soh-LOTH-ee
Thanks for reading this short intro into the setting of the Shattered Isles. I am adding updates to the setting guide on itch.io regularly, so please check that out if you get the chance.
I don’t really know the cadence at which I’ll be updating the background history here on Substack, but I’d like to at least have a monthly post on it. Next time, the story continues with the passages as transcribed by Ferigal. We're approaching the Upheaval, a pivotal moment that triggers the setting's descent into the desolate world where our game takes place.
There are a few more moments in the world’s history that further scar the lands, but the Upheaval is likely the most influential in terms of establishing where magic comes from in all its forms.
Until then!