Long-brewing tensions between rival nations boil over, threatening all-out war.

Designed by Mike Underwood

The Pitch

Five years into an armistice that ended a decade of warfare, the threat of renewed conflict looms large in the continent of Althas. Five nations in a delicate web of alliance and rivalry seek to exploit the opportunities granted during a moment of rapid magical, political, and social change. All five nations deploy agents to strengthen alliances, sabotage foes, and tip the balance of power in their favor. In Five Banners Burning, you’ll play heroes caught up in the twisty and ever-escalating conflict between nations, contending with competing loyalties, generational grudges, and opportunistic villainy.

Overview

The five nations of Althas:

• Armada, a federation of city-states founded by pirates-turned-merchants. Uninterested in paying back the fortunes stolen by their forebears, they seek strength and recognition through naval superiority. Allies of Jesthaen, disliked by Voldaen and Hilltop.
• Hilltop, a rich theocracy that exerts a monopoly on access to the gods, giving them holdings in the other nations’ settlements from capitals down to villages. Old allies of Voldaen, unfriendly toward Armada and Jesthaen.
• Jesthaen, a young republic recently independent from Voldaen after a bloody but short war. Seeking to prove their strength through displays of military might. Allies of Armada, allies of convenience with Polaris.
• Polaris, a progress-focused magocracy at the beginning of a magical industrial revolution. Traditional rivals of Voldaen, allies of convenience with Jesthaen.
• Voldaen, a proud monarchy with traditional authority and riches, recently shaken by Jesthaen’s secession. Old allies of Hilltop, traditional rivals of Polaris.

Althas is a continent comprising five major nations which once flew under one banner. In the age of gods, the divinities clashed with primordial powers of chaos, protecting their mortal creations. When mortals and gods were victorious, a Dwarven Seraph named Arvold was crowned first queen of Althas, founding the nation of Voldaen. Meanwhile, the gods made their seat in what is now known as Hilltop, departing centuries later to fight otherworldly foes.

Over several centuries, factional differences within Voldaen grew untenable. With the gods absent, their priests asserted their authority as divine regents of the Hilltop. Later, a group of scholars and mages that wished to push the boundaries of what was known broke off and founded the nation of Polaris. Alliances of pirate navies began settling down in trade cities, forming the federation of Armada. And just fifteen years ago, groups of workers and anti-monarchists declared independence from Voldaen, fighting a bloody war that consumed the continent, with Hilltop coming to the aid of Voldaen and both Polaris and Armada aiding the Jesthaen rebels. Active combat ended five years ago with an armistice, but the peace remains tenous.

The emergence of Jesthaen as a nascent military powerhouse has re-drawn the lines of power, challenging Voldaen and Hilltop’s traditional authority. But the alliance between Polaris and the upstart nations of Armada and Jesthaen is tenuous. And there are many in both Voldaen and Jesthaen with unfinished business from the war. Minor border clashes and trade disputes threaten to boil over. Many believe that war is coming again, it is only a matter of when and how.

Tone & Feel

Adventurous, Dramatic, Intimate, Political, Serious, Sweeping

Five Banners Burning is an emotionally-intense campaign with a large cast and sweeping scope, where the PCs will find themselves in the crucible that forges the fate of nations. The campaign leans toward a nuanced moral landscape, with morality and ethics in tension with duty and allegiance. Heroes may do terrible things that weigh upon them, and most villains are motivated by love and loyalty as often as ambition or vengeance.

Themes

Innovative, Martial, Opulent, Urban

Inspirations

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Babylon 5, Born to the Blade, Court of Blades, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Eberron’s Dragonmarked Houses, A Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice & Fire, PARTIZAN.

Communities

The Highborne and Orderborne communities of Althas play an especially central role in this campaign, as they are the ones most strongly associated with the centers of power in the five nations. But every type of community can be found across Althas and serve as a background option for characters.

Playing a character from a Highborn community likely means you’re connected to the ruling class of the five major nations of Althas.

• Are you a member of the aristocracy or nobility, the scion of a prominent merchant or priest family?
• What expectations does your community have of you, and do you intend to live up to them?

Loreborne communities are especially prominent in Polaris, from magic academics to engineers, architects, and more. But Loreborne communities exist in every nation, maintaining religious histories and knowledge in Hilltop, advising families and maintaining continuity of knowledge in Voldaen, and more.

• What kind of knowledge does your community prioritize, and how are they connected to the levers of power in your home nation?
• What secrets does your community protect or control? What impact would they have on the burgeoning conflict?

If you come from an Orderborne community, your community’s ideals will be tested by the conflict between nations as those that live by a code will be called to die for it.

• How do you see the tenets you grew up with being changed or broken as tensions rise?
• What lines are you willing to cross to protect the people you love?

Seaborne communities are the most common in Armada, but are present elsewhere, though they’re rare in landlocked Polaris.

• How is naval power being exercised in your community?
• What do you fear will happen if the conflict comes to your community by land?

Slyborne communities can be found in all the nations, but are especially prominent in Jesthaen and Armada, where criminal organizations have been instrumental in improving their nations’ fortunes, from smugglers supporting the Jesthaen revolutionary effort to the tight-knit pirate families that founded Armada with goods taken from Voldaen, Polaris, and Hilltop.

• What is your community’s relationship to the state? Are they using this instability to leverage their connections and resources and go “legit”?
• What communities from other nations does your community do business with? How are those connections straining?

If you come from a Wanderborne community, you may consider yourself outside the authority of the five nations. But it will be very difficult to avoid the conflict entirely.

• Are your people claimed as subjects of one of the nations?
• How has the growing conflict altered your community’s travels?

Ridgeborne, Underborne, Wildborne, and other communities exist across Althas.

• What resources or assets does your community have that other nations might want to take for themselves?
• Who from your community was conscripted in past conflicts, and what tales do they tell of their battles?

Ancestries

All ancestries are available in this campaign, and can be found throughout Althas.

Player Principles

Make your actions reflect or refute your allegiances.

You will be implicated in the actions of your superiors.

Stick to your principles or break them for good reasons.

Decide where you draw your lines and what it will take for you to cross them.

Take small actions that have big implications.

Find your moment to make a difference, to push back against overwhelming odds.

Grapple with the impact of your actions on everyday people.

Connect with people and foster hope in places where fear moves them toward wrath or despair.

GM Principles

Force them to choose between their loyalties.

Make it impossible to keep everyone happy, force them to pay the price of compromise.

Entangle them in a web of old grudges and new schemes.

Carry them away with the weight of history and the gravity of ambition.

Put the party in the crucible of history.

Put the party in a position to make an impact on big events in the conflict. Make the PCs’ actions reverberate.

Zoom in and out to show the far-reaching impact of decisions.

Show how individual motives and social systems interact to create movements, good and bad.

Distinctions

A World on the Edge

Five Banners Burning features a setting on the verge of open warfare. When that war will break out depends on you, but it is almost inevitable. But the conflict between nations will be fought in ballrooms and back-alleys as much as in castles and valleys, with people from all backgrounds caught up in the growing conflict despite their best efforts.

Your Actions Will Tip the Balance

The party will be in a unique position to have an outsized impact on the ultimate results of the conflict between these nations. Ensure that they are connected to the major players, factions, leaders, or other movers & shakers so that they’re always in the thick of the conflict.

Big Questions

To engage with the thematic elements of this campaign, keep these questions in mind throughout or create your own:

• Does power always corrupt? In what ways is the road to disaster paved with good intentions?
• What does just governance look like? How do you decide who to protect and uplift with limited resources?
• How do you manage divided loyalties without betraying someone, including yourself?

Collateral Damage

As conflict escalates, it will displace monsters from their ecosystems, drive people from their homes to become refugees (within their own nation or fleeing to another nation), and upset the natural and magical balance of Althas.

The Inciting Incident

You can use the prompt below to start your campaign, or create your own.

Clover of Towers (Orderborne Firbolg, he/they), the child of Jesthaen revolutionary hero Adamant Towers (Orderborne Firbolg she/her), was kidnapped/disappeared on the way to a political marriage to Enchanter Kalashae (Loreborne Orc, she/her), a rising star in Polaris’ High Circle of mages.

Polaris is wary of Jesthaen’s claim that Clover has been kidnapped, and demands that Jesthaen follow through with the political marriage. Voldaen denies all involvement, and sent a diplomatic/investigative party to Lightning Valley, a border town known for their giant lightning rods that protect the town from magical storms and for hosting the talks that ended official hostilities between Voldaen and the revolutionary faction. Voldaen offered to collaborate on the search for Clover. However, days later, reports tell of some kind of ‘disaster’ during the initial meetings of Voldaen and Jesthaen’s representatives.

The party is sent to the town of Lightning Valley to investigate what happened.

Campaign Mechanics

Faction Relationships

Use a campaign sheet to track the relationships between the nations as well as their major assets and problems. Each nation has a relationship rating with each other nation, ranging from Nemeses (-3) to Close Allies (+3). The more intense the relationship, the more the nation will act for or against the other nation even at risk to themselves. Nations that are Friendly (+1) will render help if it does not require much effort or risk, but nations that are Nemeses (-3) will go out on a limb just to see one another suffer.

Armada

Relationships: Enemies (-2) with Hilltop, Allies (+2) with Jesthaen, Friendly (+1) with Polaris, Unfriendly (-1) with Voldaen.

Assets: Large and powerful navy, superior maps of ocean & wind currents, allied water monsters

Problems: Small land area, no overland access to the main continent, lingering reputation as pirates/thieves.

Major Objectives: Build friendly port infrastructure in Voldaen/Polaris for trade

Minor Objectives: Acquire airship technology, deploy privateers against adversaries.

Hilltop

Relationships: Enemies (-2) with Armada, Enemies (-2) with Jesthaen, Nemeses (-3) with Polaris), Allies (+2) with Voldaen.

Assets: Wealth from tithes, a devout army, priests & seraphs, divine power & authority, influence & intelligence through temples & shrines.

Problems: Surrounded by adversaries, negligible navy, scarcity of domestically-produced food.

Major Objective: Bring the miscreants of Armada back into the fold & redeem them

Minor Objectives: Beseech the gods for a bountiful harvest, stamp out a Fallen cult in Armada territory.

Jesthaen

Relationships: Allies (+2) with Armada, Enemies (-2) with Hilltop, Friendly (+1) with Polaris, Nemeses (-3) with Voldaen

Assets: A strong land-based military, natural resources, large amounts of arable land.

Problems: Political instability as a new nation, remaining conservative elements loyal to Voldaen.

Major Objective: Take revenge on Voldaen for injustices across centuries.

Minor Objectives: Secure enduring trade partnerships with Armada and Polaris. Take control of local temples from Hilltop.

Polaris

Relationships: Friendly (+1) with Armada, Nemeses (-3) with Hilltop, Allies (+2) with Jesthaen, Enemies (-2) with Voldaen.

Assets: Skilled mages, magitech innovations, airships, magical creatures.

Problems: Lack of workers, poor quality and scarce raw materials.

Major Objective: Perfect magical servitor enchantments.

Minor Objectives: Secure new mines/quarries, foster immigration through job programs.

Voldaen

Relationships: Unfriendly (-1) with Armada, Allies (+2) with Hilltop, Nemeses (-3) with Jesthaen, Enemies (-2) with Polaris),

Assets: Traditional political and cultural authority, seemingly but not actually boundless wealth.

Problems: Strategic vulnerability due to major settlements close to large borders with Polaris and Jesthaen, political upheaval following Jesthaen’s separatist revolution.

Major Objective: Reclaim key resources from Jesthaen without starting another war.

Minor Objectives: Turn Armada against their allies, steal magical talent & technology from Polaris.

Objective Countdowns

Due to the large scale of this campaign, the GM is encouraged to use special long-term Countdowns to track the big picture actions of the nations of Althas. Each nation’s efforts toward exploiting their assets, addressing their problems, and pursuing their objectives (major and minor) are tracked with Countdowns.

Each in-game week, tick down one countdown per nation as they make progress on their goal. These countdowns can also change (up or down) as appropriate with the fiction.

A completed countdown represents a nation gaining access to a type of asset, removing a problem, developing new technology or initiatives, changes in political or social fortunes, etc. When a countdown is completed, pick a new objective based on the fiction and start a new countdown. Each nation can only have one major objective countdown at a time.

Completing major objectives requires a 10-step Countdown, while minor objectives and steps to address problems have 4 to 6 steps, depending on the scale of the endeavor. The GM should stagger the progression of these countdowns so that countdowns complete every couple or few weeks rather than three at a time and then nothing for a month.

The party may often be dispatched or mobilized to complete or block these objectives, and the countdowns that complete will generate major shifts in the narrative for the party to respond to.

Example: The party spends a week traveling by airship from Armada to Polaris to seek counsel from the scholars of the High Circle about ancient script discovered in an abandoned ruin. During that time, the GM ticks one countdown per nation to represent their progress as time passes. They also tick down Voldaen’s 10-step countdown to seize one of Armada’s shipping fleets from 7 to 6, representing the nation’s scouts and sailors observing Armada’s shipping schedule and the disposition of the escort ships traveling with the cargo freighters. Inspired by the scene where the PCs had to prove their magical prowess to earn the Polaris captain’s interest to secure passage, they choose to tick Armada’s 4-step countdown to acquire airship technology from Polaris, representing their diplomatic and trade efforts to access the carefully-guarded magitech. For Hilltop, the GM ticks down their 4-clock representing a massive ritual to bless this year’s harvest and increase their yield from 1 to 0, completing the countdown making a note to spread news of its success in addressing Hilltop’s lack of food. They’ll also need to think of a new countdown for Hilltop. Polaris has two projects at 3 ticks remaining, so the GM decides to tick down their major countdown to perfect their servitor technology to 2 as the magitechnicians scale up wider tests of the promising prototype. Lastly, the GM ticks down Jesthaen’s project to take religious authority in their nation from Hilltop to 4. This countdown had recently ticked up from 4 to 5 due to the PCs choosing to investigate the cult rumors in Armada lands rather than assist Jesthaen in convincing Hilltop priests to cede authority.

Session Zero Questions

• Should all the characters come from and/or have allegiance to the same nation? Why are they allied and traveling together?
• How big of a role will war play in this campaign compared to other elements like diplomacy, intrigue, mystery?
• How much conflict do we want between PCs? What safety tools will we use to negotiate those conflicts when they occur?

Campaign Map

Pass this map around the table during Session Zero and fill it in together.

[Map Image]