The Endless Wilds

The Endless Wilds is an RPG setting originally created by ChrowX of /tg/, with contributions by JSCervini, 345, Eisenblume, LobsterEntropy, and a bunch of anonymous elegan/tg/entlemen. In essence, the setting is all about the fight between Civilization and the Wilds, an increasingly predatory nature encroaching upon Civilization. The following information is more or less canon, though the setting is currently considered a work in progress. So things can change in the future. Please enjoy!

The Great Bloom

So, where did it all go wrong? In the days before the Great Bloom, Civilization had come a very, very long way. From the age of Kings and Castles, Adventurers going on quests to slay Dragons, and wise mysterious old Wizards to Capital cities, bustling with people of every race, banded together against the ever present threat of the encroaching Wilds. It started with Magic.

Centuries ago, Magic was a mystic art divined through arcane means and ancient texts from a time too old for anyone to remember. The first Mages were a secretive lot, gifted with the ability to channel the energies from other planes to perform acts of great power and might. However, they were bad at what they did in a way they could not foresee. The Mages of old were criminally inefficient with their use of Mana, the fundamental energy in which Magic was derived. They'd draw in as much as they could get, regardless of the complexity of the spell, and throw it all out there at once. Over time, their carelessness caused more to be born with the gift to draw in and use the Mana, but their teachers were the same men who so recklessly abused this gift.

The silver lining to this mess was that more and more were being born with the gift and this led to a Golden Age of Magic. With so many would-be Mages about, folks finally started caring about the way they were using Magic and sought to understand it better. So, they sought to better refine their understanding of the art, learning and exploring all the possibilities it truly held. The fruits of a more cautious study of Magic were plentiful, leading to many new inventions and innovations, which were further perfected through Magical augmentation. Over time the Mages helped civilization outgrow its Castles and Kings and enter a time of prosperity and industry.

For a time, things were magnificent. Magic was used freely and to great benefit of all civilizations. New cities were erected at speeds once thought impossible with the refined production techniques created by this new breed of Mage scholars and quality of life was at an all time high. However, this glorious era only came after several centuries of frivolous Magic and the effects were only now beginning to be noticed. At first, The effects were only a fascinating anomaly; magically enhanced patches of forest that were producing new and interesting specimens. Naturally augmented plant life that grew quicker than any other which gave way to naturally augmented wildlife. Traveling Mages sought these spots out, seeing them as spots where a caster might reinvigorate and empower their Magic, which led to more unchecked casting.

For all their advancements, civilization could not be ready have prepared for the Great Bloom. Even to this day, the specific details of the Great Bloom are a mystery. Some tales recall a bright, burning flash in the furthest distances at different places all across the planet, followed by a surge of plant life tearing it's way across the country side, consuming all things in its path. There are no reports of what happened at those burning sites. Within a single day, the little patches of enchanted forest had grown and become the Wilds that now engulf the planet. Countless lives were lost and cities fell before they were even aware they were under attack. Only a few places had any luck surviving the incident. Newly invented Mana-Siphons, devices that were being used to capture and study the phenomenon of ambient Mana, were being tested in several cities and they happened to create an infertile area where the Wilds failed to grow. At the time, they were the only thing that saved Civilization from being wiped out. Soon after realizing this, they frantically began building and erecting as many of the Siphons as they could while the warriors of the city fought to their last breath to push back the tide of monstrosities that emerges from the newly formed forest. It's been fifty-four years since that day and Civilization is just now in a position to start pushing back properly. New settlements are being prepared every day and the Mages who inadvertently caused the catastrophe and saved hundreds of thousands of lives from being claimed by it have worked tireless to find a solution, only now realizing that their careless drawing of Mana into their world was the problem. Though, they still do not fully understand the depth of their mistake.

Current efforts to solve the problem have started by a fundamental change in the way Magic is used, now relying on withdrawing ambient Mana from the area, rather than from extraplanar sources as the Mages of old did. Those casters who still seek to use Magic in a more active capacity have redoubled their efforts to understand Magic, approaching the study with intense self-discipline and rigor. This new breed of Mages seeks to use Magic with the utmost efficiency or simply not at all while others have turned towards the study of Magical engineering, instead relying on Manatech - Mana-powered technology - to help alleviate the problem.

The Post-Bloom World

Ever since the Great Bloom, the very idea of geography and everything that stems from it - cartography, navigation, natural sciences, and the like - have been changed forever. In the fifty-four years since the even, it has become nigh impossible to define the world in the ways it has been before. Instead, the world has been defined in relation to two things: the relative Mana-dead zones of the Capitals and the smaller settlements; and the Mana-rich zones of the Cores. Capitals tend to stay still, despite the changing features of the world around them, while the Cores drift across the world causing the changes in the first place. Some people have gone into the field of predicting the movement and behavior of the Cores, lending a very useful service to Hunters and travelers alike. As for the Capitals themselves, there are a couple important ones which are known to most of the civilized world.

Capitals

Osenvar
Sulinad
Aes Kalon
Valeria
Halliwell
Aarn

Settlements

Circle of Harmony
Frost's Grip
Kaima Noer

Cores

The Downward Spiral
The Glimmering Skysea
The Jaws of the Dead

Other Places

Wildsbane
Grave of the Unnamed Hunter
Veddis Stadium
Mezcotal

Civilization

The Capitals exist in the midst of a constant battle between Civilization and the Wilds. Enormous devices of great arcane power, Mana-Siphons stand at the edge of every town, drawing in Magical energy and reducing the Wilds’ influence on the area. This energy can be used to create electrical power, which every settlement relies upon. As long as the Siphons continue to function, the Wilds’ growth is curtailed. Several huge Capitals exist, the handful of pre-Bloom megacities that survived through either technology or magical intervention. These cities are host to millions of people from every known race. Intermingling and intermarriage are common and, indeed, accepted. In these Capitals, great throngs of people live in towering apartment buildings and travel crowded streets to get to work. Most people could spend an entire day without feeling the presence of the Wilds.

By contrast, frontier settlements exist as outposts close to and even within the Wilds, and the people there live their every day in wary acceptance of the danger that lurks outside their walls. Some settlements have barely more than a thousand people living there, and might see travelers from other settlements perhaps once a month, while some are large enough to sustain communications with the Capitals, with populations in the tens of thousands.

Necessities

Food is a vital concern in every settlement. Farming within the city walls is a common and effective way of producing staple foods, especially since crops grow much faster in the post-Bloom world. In the crowded Capitals, citizens with private houses usually have rooftop gardens, while apartments are usually required by law to have a garden or greenhouse on the roof. Multi-storey vertical greenhouses are also a relatively common sight, especially in cities where space is at a premium. Novice Hunters are often dispatched into the Wilds to hunt monsters and animals for meat. Sometimes these Wild creatures are dangerously infected with mana, and require curing and siphoning before they can be consumed safely. Sometimes, adventurers have to eat while on the trail and run the risk of Mana Sickness, which is told to lead to much more than an upset stomach.

Water is a big concern for most settlements that are just starting out. The risk of river monsters must be balanced against the risk of thirst. Most settlements rely on cisterns and rainwater as their primary source of water. Larger cities sometimes have to use the huge underwater lakes that can be found through Dungeon exploration. Magineers lay pipe to draw water from these enormous reserves. Rivers and such can be tapped into the the same way, with Hunters clearing out any Monster threatening the pipes.

Protection

Towns are protected from the Wilds by the Guardsmen, the stalwart protectors and police force rolled into one. They often patrol the edges of the town, watching for monsters or other Wild attacks. As well, they maintain law and order (although most larger cities have a separate police force, smaller settlements rely on the Guards for this task). When not dealing with mundane crime, the most experienced Guardsmen often search for dreaded Druids as well as others who have been corrupted by the Wilds. The only group that equals the Guardsmen in bravery and martial prowess are the Hunters, the brave or crazy individuals who make their living escorting convoys between villages, scouting out the Wild Unknown, or delving into the Dungeons in the hopes of a lucrative find. These frontiersmen are regarded as both heroes and threats, as not everyone who delves into the Wilds returns unchanged. When a new settlement is to be established, Hunters find good sites and fight off the Wild while helping a squad of Mages from the Consortium assemble a Mana-Siphon.

Magic

Mages still work as spell-slingers and masters of the arcane, although they are more likely to be found tinkering with Manatech or fixing the town’s Mana-Siphon than poring through books of eldritch lore. Mages and engineers are often the same thing in practice, tending to the Manatech of the world as Magineers, although it’s possible to be such without any excessive arcane talent. However, as most devices (even ones that use electricity) eventually draw their power from Mana, Mages are uniquely suited to act as repairmen in the Magineer capacity, inventors and researchers in the Magister capacity. Experienced, powerful Mages often act as commanders of a town’s Guardsmen because their understanding of the flow of Mana helps them predict where and when attacks from the Wild will come.

Technology

Technology is at a level comparable to the late 20th Century, with a mixture of medieval and modern elements. Electrical lights, appliances, and other inventions exist, although they might be hacked together out of wood and stone in places where metal and plastic are hard to come by. Enchanted or otherwise Mana-powered devices are uncommon, and people using them may be regarded with suspicion. Outside the confines of civilization, however, Mana is the only power source available, and many common devices can be found (or modified by a Magineer) that work with raw Mana. Fluctuations in magical energies can make the use of such devices dangerous, as they run the risk of burning out, exploding, or worse. Guns are still at the flintlock/black powder stage, encroaching firing cap technology, although some Manatech weapons can spew thousands of bullets, lightning or billows of fire.

But there has been word of a new advance in Manatech, whispers of something called a Datastore. It is said that this advance allows the transit of information through the ambient Mana of the world. Think of it as a mobile telephone, but on a grander scale and scope. Intellectuals are already extolling its open nature, both as a means to share information with each other in order to restore order to the world and tame the Wilds, but also to expose and tame the growing corruption and terrible practices within the megacities. Of course, this technology seems to have some time to mature before it can become widely available to the populace. It is, of course, no surprise that some in the higher circles of these societies are denouncing this Datastore as heretical technology which may actually strengthen the Wilds through the wider-spread use of the world’s Mana

Transportation

Due to the isolated nature of mankind’s settlements in the setting, transport is an extremely limited affair. Most settlements, even Capitols, try to be as self-sufficient as possible due to the danger and uncertainty of travel between them. The leftover roads from before the Bloom are largely unstable and are, in spots, overgrown by the flora of the Wilds. However, there are still some routes that are more or less intact between some of the settlements and Capitals, but only due to constant maintenance and clearing. As such, it is always best to bring a caravan of Hunters and arms along for the ride, just in case the Wilds encroach upon the traveling party. Of course, if the roads are too difficult to navigate, there is always the idea of cutting through the Wilds to make a new path.

A more recent advancement in technology, although possibly more dangerous than the other means of transport in the setting. Theoretically, Airships are capable of bypassing a lot of the dangers on the ground, and are far more expedient than traveling through the Wilds. However, there are two factors that limit Airships. One is the Manasiphons on board. While they are more or less reliable, a heavy drop in ambient Mana will kill the engines while a surge can make it explode. Either is a very bad thing. The other factor is that they can only travel short distances before they are swarmed by the avian beasts of the Wilds. This leads to only a handful of Airships in service among the scattered settlements and Capitols of the world. Such scarcity leads to a level of autonomy among airships, rivaling that of former nations. The pilot decides when and where they are going, no questions asked. After all, one can’t simply fire him and replace him, it takes years of apprenticeship to avoid mana depressions and surges.The crew of airships are the best of the best, from engineering to combat. Airships know they’re needed, and act as such.

Daily Life

While the world around the Capitals and settlements is dangerous, to say the absolute least, at least there are the Guard and the Hunters to keep the general populace safe and sound for the most part. Daily life is much like the daily life we have in our reality - a daily grind, usually from morning to sundown, interspersed with social contact with friends and family, and the dealings with acquaintances of many preferences and likings. Granted, some of the technology is different than in our reality - private automobiles as we know it do not exist, though there is likely some form of public transit. But for the most part, it is analogous.

A new middle class has been emerging within the megacities in recent years, with the rise of private businesses after the fallout from the Great Bloom started to settle down. This has been leading to a distinction of classes that have reappeared since the actual calamity. The Guard and the Hunters are still respected in society, but are becoming better known as necessary grunts. Politicians and leaders are still seen in a good light, though there are rumors of growing corruption within the upper echelons. The growing class of businessmen are more open about their less savory practices, but have a bit of leeway given their necessity in the growing marketplace of the megacities. For some, if the Wilds won’t kill mankind off, mankind may do that job all by themselves.

Professions

In these trying times, it’s easy to be shoehorned into a particular profession. Such choices are limited these days, but are vital to the success of mankind even in these circumstances. But there is one profession more important than the others, that of the Hunter. Hunters come from just about all walks of life, be it martial, social, professional, Magical... the diverse nature of Hunters make them the best (if only) group to actually go out into the Wilds and tame it, inch by inch, gathering the resources it has to offer. Odds are that a player will be portraying a Hunter in the course of a story in this setting.

The Guardsmen are the protectors of any settlement in this age. They generally keep the populace protected from without, though they also perform protection from within in the smaller settlements, where there isn’t as many people to perform either task by itself. Essentially, the Guardsmen are the martial profession of choice for those getting into the field, learning to use blade, bow, and bullet alike. In the larger Capitals, it is common to see a police force separate from the Guard. Policemen are tasked with protecting the cities from within, be the threats standard criminals, Druid spies from the Wilds, or corruption from the upper echelons of society. Policemen are proficient in smaller blades and firearms, but also have a better grip on the social aspect of dealing with the unruly, sometimes able to defuse a situation before it gets bad.

While there are still Mages that venture about, using magic in more traditional ways, they are better known in two capacities. Magineers specialize in the operation, repair, and optimization of various forms of Manatech. If it’s broken, odds are that a Magineer can fix it. The better Magineers can also use Manatech in ways that it wasn’t intended to be. A Mana-Torch, for instance, can be optimized to become, say, a magical flamethrower if the Magineer is good enough to do so. As such, Hunters who come from this background are usually tasked with the weaponized Manatech. On the other hand, the Magisters are those who research and develop the Manatech to be built in the first place. They are the ones who draw upon thousands of years of magical knowledge as well as the consultation of their contemporary scientists to come up with the Manatech that offers at least some level of reprieve for a troubled people. Their extensive knowledge of the inner workings of Mana and spellcraft lend to an ability to resist the corruption Mana can bring upon them, allowing them to work as raw spellcasters when they are Hunters in the field.

Businessmen, a recent profession in terms of existence after the Great Bloom, know that there are opportunities abound in the fight to reclaim their world from the Wilds. They work with many of the other classes and are becoming the driving force for further development of Manatech, investors of expeditions into the Wilds for further resources. Some question their motives, but their results are concrete. Ruthless, and ready to start thriving rather than just surviving. Despite these advances, vestiges of the royalty of old remain in the Capitals as the Politicians, although their methods have changed. Some of the settlements and Capitols have changed to a less formal, more democratic society. Others devolved into oligarchies with experts and elders at the helm. Even others maintained their feudal hierarchies in name and structure. But in any of these cases, the Politicians are able to do the talking, to get people together for a common cause. Or perhaps to drive them apart, depending on the people.