Editing Shadow of the Demon Lord (section)

==The Setting==
Demon Lord is described as being loose with the setting, and pretty much everything can be reconfigured to work in virtually any world, even a Mad Max wasteland via the ''Godless'' rule/splatbook. Basically, a very powerful thing(s) wants to gobble up the world and everyone in it, and the powers that be are too inept, corrupt, or ignorant to stop it, leaving it up to the players. As for the game's pre-made world, it's like if you took [[D&D]], [[Warhammer Fantasy|Warhammer]], [[H.P. Lovecraft]], [[Dark Souls]], Bloodborne, [[The Witcher]], Dragon Age, and [[Numenera]], minced it all up in a blender, then poured it out and fried it into a story.

Urth is doomed.  We're in pre-apocalypse territory, with the minions of the titular Demon Lord working behind the scenes (and sometimes in the open) to ready the world to usher in their master, a multi-reality conquerer who has eyed this place as their newest prize.

The most fleshed out continent of the setting is Rûl.  There are several countries within after the recent fall of the Empire of Caecras due to the death of the Emperor at the hands of the Orc Rebellion, and the rising of the Orc King Drudge who sits upon its hallowed throne.  Balgrendia, a former vassal, distrusts the New God, sticking to the Old Wisdom, and is on the edge of a succession crisis as its king's health fails.  The Grand Duchy of the West is a backwards, feudal nation, ruled by incestuous bluebloods.  The Holy Kingdom once was ruled by the aristocracy, but the papacy of the New God is the real power, with the ruling family being little more than puppets to the Church and their Inquisition.  Low Country is pastoral and pretty, but it hides the rot of corruption behind its simple beauty.  The Marchlands are the wall of the Empire, fighting to keep the beastmen out of the Empire and in the mountains.  And so on and so forth.

The core races of the setting are [[Human]]s (the basic choice), [[Changeling]]s (shapeshifters created by the fae to replace children they steal), [[Warforged|Clockworks]] (souls stripped from the afterlife and bound to mechanical bodies), [[Dwarf|Dwarves]] (bearded gold-fuckers with a grudge fetish), Goblins (a race of fae who were banished from their realm for some unknown crime and now spend most of their days in trash heaps), and [[Orc]]s (the children of Jotuns who were twisted by the Empire as a perfect slave race, now serving no one but themselves).  Later books added Halflings and Fauns to the pile as well as Ferren (shapeshifting were-cats), [[Hamadryad]]s, Molekin (hideous blobby things that gave off a weird vibe of [[Duergar]] sans the orderliness), Naga (snake-men better described as [[Lamia]]s), [[Sylph]]s, Frost Giants, and Yerath (hive-minded bug-folk). Later supplements and books present more races or further details to bring more life to your character.

So in general, extradimensional entities are preparing to eat reality while everyone else squabbles for control.  Our heroes are often urchins, thugs, or lackeys, and traditional heroes are rare and becoming rarer as they die or fall to corruption. And though you might win, you've got to sacrifice a lot in the process. [[Warhammer Fantasy Battles|Sound familiar?]]

In general it tries to strike a balance of dark and silly tones with a sprinkling of noble goodness, and it works... usually. Many jokes have been made about Schwalb's apparent obsession with (literal) shit; a few spells, items, and descriptions have to do with poop, and it seems like a few of the races are either obsessed with or have little disgust for shit and other excretions for some reason. It's easy enough to ignore, though it ''might'' not be a good idea to let the least mature player in your group play a Goblin.