Produktbeschreibung
THE DARK GODS
“My grandfather says he saw them rise up from the deep. A collection of light, a miasma that was somehow solid yet not, rose from the water like smoke before collecting in a tornado of living fire. He says he saw faces in the smoke, and heard a thousand voices all speaking at once. My grandfather went deaf and blind that day, and though he never eats or drinks, he doesn’t die. I haven’t the heart to help him move on.” - James Rheese, Captain of the Sheercutter.
In the forty years since their arrival, the Esoterica have nearly eradicated all of mankind. No army could stand before them, no fleet could withstand their otherworldly might. The colossal Esoterica slaughtered with abandon, roaming the land unchecked, sowing bedlam and leading hordes of their hungry children into every city and stronghold throughout the world of Toil.
Before the Rise, magic was not commonly accepted as real even by many who claimed to perform it. With the Rising of the Esoterica came the rising of magic as well. What was considered myth is myth no more. Old superstitions gained visible power and common street performing charlatans became powerful magicians.;
CURSED LAND, OPEN SEAS
The Esoterica brought with them a curse, a powerful disease of magic that radiated from the gods’ very cores. Each Esoterica carries a different curse that affected the world around them in a uniquely terrifying way. Each varied and unpredictable, but with a single guiding fact: the larger the landmass, the more powerful the curse. This devastated the mainlands almost instantly and left most small islands seemingly untouched. Wherever the Esoterica stepped, their curse would spread from land to land until it covered the whole globe.
Only one place has thus far been spared from their indelicate ministrations: the Faerie Sea. Perhaps the Esoterica are repulsed by the energies of the seas that was their former prison, perhaps the influence of the Old Gods now keeps them at bay, or perhaps they are herding the last of mankind into their final trap. Regardless, the Esoterica have not revisited the Faerie Sea for the forty years since their Rise. Meanwhile, the mainlands, large islands, and seas outside the Faerie Sea lie abandoned, left for the Esoterica and their spawn.
The many island chains along the Faerie Sea, the only safe havens in the entirety of Toil, are now home to all that remains of humanity. Fleeing the predations of the Esoterica, the refugees first came by the thousands. The ragged remnants of Kestrelt fleets, numerous limping trade convoys of the Tyvorosi Trade Guild, battle-queens of Ralkara on their Name Quests, Sharjh wind-warlocks desperately hoping for the promise of greater magical power through relics of the ancient empire shattered by the Breaking, hundreds of native God Blood tribes horrified by the desolation of their homes, not to mention numerous bands of outlaw pirates, renegade captains, privateers, mercenaries, and self-styled warlords – all of them now find themselves huddled amongst the specks of earth dotting the Faerie Sea. |
