The World of Aarn: Difference between revisions
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*Humans, who are the masters of the world. The first human civilization created magical experiments so powerful, they shattered an entire continent, creating a sea of islands to the east. Humans were created from giants, an animal that served as a base component in most of the godtouched civilizations that survived to this day. | *Humans, who are the masters of the world. The first human civilization created magical experiments so powerful, they shattered an entire continent, creating a sea of islands to the east. Humans were created from giants, an animal that served as a base component in most of the godtouched civilizations that survived to this day. | ||
*Ardlins, a race of diminutive | *Ardlins, a race of diminutive velociraptor-goblin-kobolds. Their race was created not 75 years ago Ardlins have a high technological aptitude, despite not yet developing their own culture or education. They are shunned and hunted because no race wishes to see Ardlins become the next race to dominate the planet. They were created by the god of procrastination, who is now beginning to be seen as the god of plucky resolve. | ||
*Valdrex, a race of insects whose individuals have no egos. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, they nearly destroyed the planet by killing two of the gods. Since then, they have become merchants who seek to dominate through slavery and economic means. They garb themselves in robes that make them appear humanoid, for diplomatic purposes. | *Valdrex, a race of insects whose individuals have no egos. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, they nearly destroyed the planet by killing two of the gods. Since then, they have become merchants who seek to dominate through slavery and economic means. They garb themselves in robes that make them appear humanoid, for diplomatic purposes. | ||
Revision as of 02:07, 20 February 2009
The World of Aarn is a homebrew setting with a whimsical exterior, but an interior of eldritch horror and primal catastrophe.
The typical fantasy setting is usually shaped by a pantheon of squabbling gods. Aarn is a setting that explores what cataclysms might really happen with such petty, uncaring, and irresponsible entities. Aarn also explores what might really happen if these beings are regularly granting power to mortals, to the point where 'magic' can be considered a law of nature.
The World of Aarn has been in development since October 2007, and continues to be worked on to this day, on an exterior blog and wiki.
The Planet Aarn
Aarn is a planet pockmarked by craters and blanketed by a magical storm that covers a full hemisphere, making that hemisphere completely uninhabitable. It is populated by sentient creatures called "Godtouched," who are in fact the genetic experiments of the gods. The most currently-successful godtouched race is the Humans, who have dominated the planet by harnessing the world's forces of magic with modern ideas of science and technology.
The Gods Themselves
Aarn's gods are not truly real. The images worshiped as Gods that interact with Aarn's populace are the roleplaying characters of timeless, multiverse-aware entities who wish to do nothing else but experiment with the notion of causality. They are uncaring, unfeeling, and unknowable. The identities they play vary from region to region, based on the beliefs of their local worshipers.
The Fey
The same entities that play Aarn's gods also play Aarn's fey. In the case of the fey, these entities impose upon themselves strict limitations which put them just slightly above the level of Godtouched races. Despite these limitations, fey are still mind bending, sanity-searing creatures that seem able to bend the laws of the natural world to their whims.
The Demifey
Occasionally, the entities playing the gods and the fey can become separated from the identities they have created. These identities become autonomous, and quickly go insane. They are no longer immortal, and in fact are less than mortal, as their next death will annihilate them utterly. They keep their godly powers, and are given a very good reason to use them; self-preservation. Demifey are the most dangerous creatures Aarn has to offer.
The Godtouched Races
The magic-capable races of Aarn are the lone survivors of ancient bloody wars of genocide. Each race was created by splicing together the aspects of varying animals, granting the resulting creation sentience and magic, then seeing how long the race survived. Godtouched races include, but are not limited to:
- Humans, who are the masters of the world. The first human civilization created magical experiments so powerful, they shattered an entire continent, creating a sea of islands to the east. Humans were created from giants, an animal that served as a base component in most of the godtouched civilizations that survived to this day.
- Ardlins, a race of diminutive velociraptor-goblin-kobolds. Their race was created not 75 years ago Ardlins have a high technological aptitude, despite not yet developing their own culture or education. They are shunned and hunted because no race wishes to see Ardlins become the next race to dominate the planet. They were created by the god of procrastination, who is now beginning to be seen as the god of plucky resolve.
- Valdrex, a race of insects whose individuals have no egos. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, they nearly destroyed the planet by killing two of the gods. Since then, they have become merchants who seek to dominate through slavery and economic means. They garb themselves in robes that make them appear humanoid, for diplomatic purposes.
- Spirit Animals, a race of sentient animals with ornery personalities. They have the special ability to become spirits upon death, avoiding the afterlife entirely. Spirit animals may then steal the bodies of other races. Those possessed by spirit animals have infiltrated Human society, and actually control Aarn's international banking system.
- Merfolk, an aquatic race that shuns the use of all magic. Instead, merfolk use biotechnology, including mile long eel battleships, laser-firing lamprey wrist-guards, and jellyfish bubble-cities. The Merfolk are literally ruled by their god, Occus, and have perpetrated genocide against all other aquatic godtouched races. Only the water dragons survived.
Magic
The magic of Aarn covers three distinct categories. Wizardry is the scientific magic of Humans, that obeys the mechanical laws of nature. Channeling is a custom, at-will magic system. Divine magic, also known as dream magic, is the ability for Godtouched races to borrow the powers of the gods and fey to reshape the world.
Wizardry
Aarn's Wizards use a Vancian spellcasting system called Spellweaving, where they program spells like computer code. Typically, each spell can be used once when woven, and is stored within the Wizard's aura before use. Atypically, Aarn wizards cannot use polymorph effects, summoning effects, or any effect that requires intelligence, adaptibility or creativity on the part of the spell itself.
Channeling
Channelers are magic users who develop their abilities naturally. A channeler is attuned to one of Aarn's 14 magical elements, which are Air, Water, Earth, Metal, Life, Death, Kanna (A catch-all physical element), Heat, Cold, Light, Dark, Sound, Electricity, and Manna (A catch-all energy element.) A channeler's abilities are either psychic, transmutational, or psychokinetic, or a combination of these. An individual Channeler has only a few of the availible abilities, but he or she can combine these abilities together to achieve greater effects. Channelers have a number of spell points they can burn each turn to use these abilities and effects as often as they wish.
Divine Magic
Aarn mortals travel to the Astral Sea, the home of the gods and fey, and the location of the afterlife, in order to dream. Mortals who have great faith, the favor of a god or fey, or simply a dream-like personality can use this magic. Divine magic has few rules save for the categories of spells, and each divine caster creates their own spells to suit their character. Divine magic can be augmented through varying casting methods, and these methods of casting vary widely from region to region, from chanting, to using cards and magic circles, to dancing, or to the truly ridiculous, like making silly faces or eating divine fruit. Divine magic has so many cultural methods of casting because it works if you believe it does, and conversely, it does not work if you do not believe it will.
Elemancy
Elemancy is a special hybrid magic that allows a wizard with channeling abilities to create and dominate pets and constructs. An Elemancer does so by literally dividing his or her soul among many bodies. These creatures are called elementals, and are composed entirely out of an Elemancer's element. Biomancers create monsters, Necromancers create undead puppets, Animancers create constructs, and the like.
Magitech
Aarn's magic is highly volatile, and magical items will explode horrifically if seriously damaged or improperly maintained. Despite this, magical technology is highly pervasive. Aarn's technological advancement is analogous to our own, and in some cases, such as medical technology, Aarn's technology surpasses ours. Aarn is filled with clockwork vehicles, airships, hover platforms, and huge city-maintaining golems.
Runecrafting
Runecrafting is the art of drawing magical runes, which resonate with the magical auras that lie in all things, especially nonmagical things. By using runes, a character can impart upon themselves or objects channeling effects that can neither be turned off nor controlled. If destroyed or improperly removed, a rune will seriously damage an object, which is why runes that are designed to create spells effects, like scrolls, are destroyed upon the release of the magical effect.
The Afterlife
Aarn's afterlife consists of nine and a half hells, and no heavens. These hells are not hellish by design, but because of bureaucratic missteps, it is quite difficult to find oneself in a hell they will enjoy. The hells are a satire of Dungeons and Dragons alignment system, with each hell modeled after one of the nine alignments. These hells are very much like Aarn itself, with only the immortality of their residents and the bureaucracy of the demons setting them apart.
Demons
Demons are the clerks of the afterlife, who created the nine and a half hells after the previous afterlife system was actually destroyed. They have knowledge of Earth, and follow earth religions. Their technology is also based on earth science fiction stories, but all of their devices are designed with a North American 1940s or 1950s vibe.
History
The first war of the gods nearly destroyed the world. Since then, things had calmed down, but only relatively so. Out of thousands of races, and thousands of gods, only between twenty and thirty goudtouhced races survived. A scant eight thousand years ago, Jennin decided to create the humans, and risk restarting the wars. Soon after, the humans had used wizardry to take over the world. They then accidentally blew up a fifth of the existing landmass. Immediately afterward, the god of undeath decided to become involved. He invented a magical virus that allowed him to control undead puppets much like elemancers. Doing so also created ghosts and spirits, which destroyed the then-current afterlife system.
By now, a new afterlife system has had enough time to become grievously misunderstood by Aarn's mortals, and the political structure of the world has somewhat stabilized, with humans still on top. The fey and Gods obviously see this time as a new, prime opportunity to begin creating godtouched races again. They seek to rekindle the war of the gods, treating Aarn and its mortal inhabitants as their personal playthings.
External Links
Aarn's progress blog, occasionally updated.
Aarn's Wiki, constantly updated and under heavy construction.