Creating Your World

Chapter Five

Creating Your World

This chapter offers tools to structure the world you are playing in. These can each be used as individual pieces, or all together in a nesting-doll approach:

Campaign Frames provide an overarching concept and special twists for your campaign.

Locations help ﬂesh out the places you might go during your campaign.

Themes provide inspiration and common threads for your story.

Environments provide narrower narrative and mechanical grounding within a location.

Adversaries present people and other creatures to challenge your players within an environment.

Campaign Frames

When starting a campaign of Daggerheart, you might choose to begin with a campaign frame. These frames provide inspiration, tools, and mechanics to support the story your table will tell. You can choose one of the campaign frames from the following pages, or use their structure to inspire your own.

Each campaign frame includes the following elements:

A pitch to present to players.
An overview of the campaign’s background.
Suggestions for the campaign’s tones and themes, plus cultural touchstones that shaped it.
Guidance on how certain communities, ancestries, and classes ﬁt into the setting.
Principles for players and GMs to consider during the campaign.
Unique setting distinctions.
An inciting incident to launch the campaign.
Special mechanics to use during the campaign.
Questions to consider during session zero.
A map for the players and GM to ﬁll in together.

The Witherwild

A peaceful, quiet land faces a spreading corruption.

The Pitch

The Fanewick was once a place of great abundance and peace, dangerous to those unfamiliar with the land, but a cornucopia to those who respected its ways. When Haven came and forced the land into Eternal Spring, a dangerous bloom known as the Witherwild took hold and now threatens the lives of all who live there. In the Witherwild campaign, you’ll play unlikely heroes from humble beginnings who are reckoning with their newfound duty to save the people of this land from dangerous corruption.

Overview

Fanewick is a wild and untamed land, long avoided by outside forces. The woods are dark and twisting, ﬁlled with Faint Divinities that perform small miracles and services for its inhabitants, but are just as likely to lure travelers off narrow paths to their ruin. Seemingly harmless expanses of ﬁeld hide bogs that will englut entire armies, consuming heavy artillery as quickly as it can cross the border. This wilderness fosters hardy people who are bold enough to raise families where others have not and strictly follow the unique rules that keep them safe. They remained insulated from the wars of their neighbors until plague forced the people of Haven to desperate acts.

Haven was once the most powerful force in the region; for centuries the high stone walls into the capital bore the phrase “The Godless Gate.” While the original meaning has been lost to common knowledge, some dusty tomes and ancient records state that the founders of Haven wished to be free of the inﬂuence of the Faint Divinities that dominated the surrounding regions. They hatched a plan to kill one of the mightiest of these deities, known as the Shun’Aush the Granite Ophid. While their exact method of deicide is forgotten, their victory ensured Haven’s dominance in the region for centuries to come. They made their home behind its remains, which became the mighty walls that Haven was known for. But the Shun’Aush would have his revenge. As the Havenites carved through its stone body, the ﬁne dust left behind settled into the surrounding earth. There was a time of prosperity over many centuries while the scales of the god remained undisturbed. But progress is it’s own pressure and the increased productivity demanded by a growing population brought the ancient stone dust to the surface as farms tilled deeper soil, and mines hacked into hidden stone. The same walls that brought the city security, became the crucible that incubated a virulent plague.

Over the last two years, over half of Havenites fell to a disease known as the “Serpent’s Sickness.” First, victims’ cough up dust, soon after their skin breaks out in a scaling rash, then their body hardens beginning ﬁrst with the ﬂesh, bones, soft tissue, and ﬁnally their origins ossiﬁed. Once within the organs, “the serpent” moves so quickly, that victims petrify where they stand, leaving the city of Haven ﬁlled with statues of victims in their last moments of agony.

But, the High Magus of Haven, Archmage Phylax discovered a rare red ﬂower that could cure the Serpent’s Sickness. Challengingly, these buds only grow proliﬁcally across Fanewick in the spring, but for every 10,000 of the common white-petaled blossoms, there’s only one of the rare red blooms the cure requires.

Things got so desperate in Haven that they had no choice but to invade if there was to be any hope of saving their people from the plague. So it came to pass that Haven sent forces into Fanewick, to round up the scarce red buds. They plunged into the deep wood, and under the guidance of Archmage Phylax, stole the Reaping Eye from the most powerful Faint Divinity that protected the land, the Great Owl god Nikta, the Sheperd of the Seasons . Though few believed the wizard’s stories, he was correct: the Sheperd of the Seasons kept the Fanewick in balance by turning its eye ﬁrst for ripening, then ruination, upon the land, maintaining the cycle of seasons, of growth and decay, of death and rebirth. With the Reaping Eye removed, Nikta can only watch over the Fanewick with the Eye of Renewal, forcing it into everlasting spring.

In the year since, Haven has conquered the bogs, turning them into ﬁelds to harvest red ﬂowers. The endless growth that once seemed like a gift quickly evolved into a scourge known as the Witherwild–the ﬂora and fauna of the Fanewick have ﬂourished, unchecked and uncontrolled. Animals swell to massive size, trees warp, twist, and begin to hunt people, vines creep along the forest ﬂoor strangling all they touch. This explosive growth is unconquerable and unrelenting, with no force able to stop the metastasizing verdance for long.

Prior to the Serpent’s Sickness and the Owl God’s endless growth, your party lived a peaceful life in Fanewick or life of toil and conquest in Haven. But when the danger demands a response, even the unprepared (and perhaps unwilling) must make a stand.

Tone & Feel:

Dynamic, Whimsical, Cozy, Uncanny, Epic, Heroic, Adventurous, Thrilling

Themes:

Verdant, Ancient, Serene, Haunted

Inspirations

The Legend of Zelda, The Dark Crystal, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Communities

All communities are available, but some have unique aspects within the Witherwild campaign.

Loreborne and Highborne

In Fanewick, knowledge is the most valuable commodity and those who have expertise have the most power. This economy of information functions primarily on gifting and trading, and wisdom would be considered acceptable collateral for a weapon or warm meal. As such, Loreborne community members are the wealthiest in the Fanewick and might be smaller, distinct groups of hunters, historians, or artisans, within larger villages.

What knowledge did your community teach you that you must now protect or share?
What are you able to accomplish because of your upbringing that others outside your community do not understand?
You once traded important knowledge for something terrible. What did you impart and what did you gain in return?

In Haven, the wealthiest members are Highborne, having inherited riches that were built in the walled city over generations. While the Highborne of Haven were more insulated from the Serpent’s Sickness, like any disease, none were immune.

Who have you lost to the Serpent’s Sickness? How did it affect you?
How did your family make their wealth? Have you rejected or embraced their core set of ethics?
You grew up in a world of abundance but were kept from learning something about the world. What was this knowledge and when did you discover it?

Ridgeborne, Underborne, and Wildborne

While not exclusive, players who choose one of these communities (Ridgeborne, Underborne, and Wildborne) likely come from a portion of Fanewick. Members of these groups are most often raised in the deadly environment of Fanewick, which has only become more dangerous as the Witherwild progresses. Each has unique customs that allow them safe passage through dangerous terrain and the territory of Faint Divinities, which may be freely shared, or closely guarded secrets.

In exchange for protection from the Witherwild for themselves and their families, some Fanewick from these groups have been forced to take jobs as farmers in Haven’s ﬂower ﬁelds. Though it is back-breaking work performed for a nation-destroying their land, the Haven ﬁres burn back the ever-creeping Witherwild, offering safety.

What faint divinities do you give tribute to and how have you been rewarded in kind?
You displeased a god of the Fanewick. What did you do, and what misfortune befell you or a loved one?
You fled the place of your birth. What were the circumstances that drove you to leave?

Orderborne

Players might choose to build Orderborne characters if they want to play current or former members of the Haven Army that invaded Fanewick. Though the army brings violence into this land, they also carry with them incredible grief for a homeland succumbing to disease and pain.

What regrets do you carry with you from your conquest of foreign soil?
What kindness did an enemy combatant bestow upon you in an hour of need? How did this change your view of the people of the Fanewick?
You were charged with planting a rumor in a Fanewick community. What is it, and do you plan to carry out this mission?

Slybourne

As the Haven army represents the current martial power in Fanewick, those who wish to play Slyborne characters might come from rebel groups of Fanewick seeking to expel the invading forces from their lands. Depending on the nature of the tactics they employ, a character’s association with their Slyborne community might align with, or go against their upbringing.

Who among the Haven army do you wish to exact revenge upon and why?
You joined an insurgent group that’s working to free this land from Haven’s grasp. What has given you doubts about the leadership’s methods?
Someone you love is a member of the Haven Army. How have you used your position in the rebellion to protect them?

Seaborne

Both Fanewick and Haven have a coastal border. The majority of Fanewick’s Seaborne communities focus on local travel to neighboring regions and seaside living in smaller groups, while Havenites tend to live in large ports that ship and receive goods from distant lands.

You recently traveled by sea over a vast distance. What went terribly wrong on that passage and how has it changed you?
Growing up on the sea taught you a skill few have. What did you learn and how when did it save your life?
You used to sail with a companion. Who were they and how do you remain connected?

Wanderborne

Wanderborne communities can be found in both Fanewick and Haven, though safe travel has been severely restricted due to the military occupation and the expansion of the Witherwild. Players might choose to build characters that come from one or neither country, and they should make clear decisions on their personal views, and the views of their community, on the invasion of Fanewick.

What do you do to keep your small community safe, independent, and hidden from Haven’s forces?
Because of your communities’ transience, you have loved ones in both Fanewick and Haven. How has this affected your relationship with the invasion?
Your community travels to protect something. What is it, and why does it keep you from settling down?

Ancestries

All ancestries are available, but some have unique aspects within the Witherwild campaign.

Clanks from Haven are commonly made from iron and steel while Clanks from Fanewick are typically constructed from wood and stone.
Some fungril that live in the Fanewick since the Witherwild are noticeably larger than members of this ancestry from other regions.
Some Drakona, Fauns, Firbolgs, and Inferis that live in the Fanewick since the Witherwild have noticed their horns growing faster and longer.
Many families of Galapa and Ribbets that lived in the bogs of Fanewick were displaced by Haven’s army when they invaded.
Anyone, particularly those from Haven, may carry the Serpent’s Sickness, which stiffens their movements and gives them only a limited time to survive without a cure.

Classes

All classes are available, but some have unique aspects within the Witherwild campaign.

Sorcerers, Druids, and Rangers

Those with the abilities of Sorcerers, Druids and Rangers are most common throughout Fanewick. If you’re playing one of these classes, consider how you might your connection to the natural world might be impacted by the Witherwild.

Wizards and Warriors

Those with the abilities of Wizards and Warriors are very prevalent in Haven. There is a large Wizarding School in Haven that teaches fighters and healers. The Haven Army is primarily composed of Warriors and School of War Wizards. If you’re playing either of these classes, consider what your relationship to the Haven Army is.

Vengeance Guardian

Many Wicklings who seek revenge on, or the expulsion of, Haven from Fanewick have the abilities of Vengeance Guardians. If you’re playing this subclass, consider what ideals or institutions you might be protecting.

Syndicate Rogue

The Haven Army sends spies into Fanewick communities to gain information on planned attacks and to manipulate public perception. If you’re playing a Syndicate Rogue, consider how they might be connected or impacted by these covert operatives.

Player Principles

Draw from Humble Origins

You come from a place not built for war. Think about how your life before picking up arms to fight the Witherwild impacts the kind of hero you’ve become. What from your upbringing has proven useful? What do you need to leave behind?

Treat Death with Importance

Taking a life should not be done without consideration, desperation, and consequences. Remember those you’ve lost and those you’ve slain and allow it to affect your choices in the future. Is there

Embrace Vulnerability

Find your character’s humanity and showcase it whenever you can. Be as vulnerable during quiet moments as you are vicious during violent ones. Open yourself to your allies, even if you close yourself off to everyone else.

GM Principles

Paint the World in Contrast

Subvert expectations by giving space for the nightmarish to charm and the beautiful to terrify. Give the PCs visions of the natural beauty of the Fanewick that has run roughshod across the region, breaking the bounds of the bogs and forests, and devastating homes and communities. Show the grim and ordered life behind Haven’s walls, but also show the culture, art and progress that has come out of centuries of security and safety. In a place of long nights and days, dual seasons, and two nations in conflict, look for ways to highlight bold dualities.

Make the Details Whimsical

Inject humor and lightness into the inhabitants of this land. Allow the Faint Divinities to look and operate within the story in uncanny ways. Though they wield incredible power and influence, these gods may also spend their time wandering the Fanewick in search of a victim to prank or impart a harsh but humorous lesson to. Despite the trauma this land has endured, find room for joy, ritual, and celebration.

Show Them True Danger

Though it may be tragic, bodily harm is not the worst tragedy that can befall your players. To illustrate what’s truly at stake, use the PCs origins in the Fanewick or Haven to show them what they stand to lose. The events of this campaign may change or destroy their homes, family, friends, or even their core beliefs. Offering players ownership of their backstory gives them something to fight for.

Offer Alternatives to Violence

By illuminating non-violent approaches to problem solving, the PCs can actively become a part of breaking the brutal cycle that binds this world. Some corrupted beasts simply need to be shown compassion in order to free them. The conflict between Haven and the Fanewick shouldn’t only be solved with blood and blade. What threatens both could also unify them. Give the PCs opportunities to mend old wounds, right past wrongs, and heal the rift between Haven and Fanewick from within.

Create Multidimensional Allies and Adversaries

No adversary or ally is all good or all bad, and they each have multidimensional lives. Even the most congenial ally should be hiding darkness inside them, hoping their failings will go undiscovered. Those painted as evil should sometimes do the right thing, even if it’s for the wrong reason. Just because a player or NPC is from Haven does not make them a villain, and, conversely, not all the inhabitants of the Fanewick are virtuous. Finding the nuance, complications, and deeper motivations of the people of Haven and the Fanewick will lead to richer interactions, more complex moral choices, and a deeper sense of attachment to the world for the players.

Distinctions

The Weeks of Day and Night

The day and night cycle of the Witherwilds occurs weekly, meaning the sun rises for an entire week before setting into a nighttime of the same length. This has an impact on everything from agriculture to trade, as many merchants refuse to travel through the long, dark night. But this cycle doesn’t just affect the people of the Fanewick, it’s dictated how the wondrous ecology of the place has evolved. Days and nights are accompanied by entirely different natural soundscapes as the Fanewick’s nocturnal denizens sleep through the long days and stalk the woods in times of darkness while their diurnal counterparts sleep. The plants, similarly, live on this strange day/night loop, with many living out their entire life cycles in a week. Sun Rose vines make a thorny ascent to the top of the tree canopy over the course of the week, only to wilt under the light of the moon. Conversely, Night Bloom, a bioluminescent flower, that emits the smell of burnt sugar and decay, only blooms when evening falls, illuminating patches of forest; a godsend to anyone forced to travel in the dark.

The Serpent’s Sickness

The plague sweeping across Haven spares no one, and grants all a painful end. In the initial stages, victims are afflicted with a hacking cough laden with dust. Then a scaled rash errupts acros their skin, cracking their flesh in a unique and painful pattern. Since the initial outbreak, Haven officials have worked tirelessly to quarantine those in the early stages of the disease, but this effort has done little to stop the spread of the Serpent’s Sickness. Not long after, victim’s bodies will begin to harden, from their flesh, soft tissue, bones, and finally their organs will cease to function and solidify. The final stages of the serpent’s wrath is so quick, that many transform into statues where they stand, leaving all of Haven a cenotaph to a once great power.

Lady’s Veil

These small flowers grow in patches of sun throughout Fanewick. For every 10,000 blossoms of white petaled flowers, one will bloom a unique and vibrant red. These flowers have long been used in herbal teas across the region, with the crimson flowers holding a place in specific ceremonies. Even so, they were only foraged until the Havenites discovered Crimson Lady’s Veil is the only known cure for Serpent’s Sickness. Thus, they invaded Fanewick and began cultivating the flowers on massive farms in former bog territories. Though the theft of Reaping Eye has created an indefinite growing season, the red flowers remain just as rare, and Fanewick is permeated by a sickly sweet smell as the Haven Army races to mass-produce a cure for Serpent’s Sickness. Anyone outside the Haven Army or the farmworkers that’s caught with a Crimson Lady’s Veil will be killed on sight.

The Witherwild

This corruption, empowered by the endless spring, is spreading throughout Fanewick. Some believe the overgrowth began in the forest, others claim is sprang from the bogs, but this flourishing malignancy induces horrific changes and massive growth on anything it touches, transforming them into “Withered” beings. Plants sprint to life with a desire to consume all around them. Animals grow to immense proportions, with onerous dispositions to match their exaggerated teeth, tusks, and claws. Even harmless creatures that were once hunted for food have become dangerous and formiddable adversaries. When a person is corrupted by the Witherwild, either from a purposeful attack or accidental harm, they are transformed. They become a nightmarish hybrid of plant or beast, and their own changed body. The Witherwild will slowly replace the personality of victims with the same drive for consumption exhibited by the rest of the corrupt Fanewick. Though the Withered may manage to retain a semblance of who they are for a time, eventually they’ll face the final loss of their personhood. Some Wicklings believe the Withered are gifted with this power by the Nikta’s wrath and will thus drive the forces of Haven from the Fanewick and return his Reaping Eye.

The Gods of the Fanewick

Gods in the Witherwilds are not ethereal concepts that exist in another realm, but wander the land as incarnate beings, residing in both the natural world as well as within homes and small villages. As such, they are generally present in Wickling’s lives. Many communities, and even some larger families, even have their own small god, or tutelary spirit, that watches over them.

Belief and worship take on a different meaning here and there is a constant push and pull between the goals of both people and their dietific neighbors. The gods must curry worship from mortals, often by performing small miracles, acts of service, or by testing their resolve with tricks and curses. Mortals rely on the small blessings from the gods to keep them safe when traveling and working in the Fanewick. The most powerful and widely acknowledged of these Faint Divinities is the The Sheperd of Seasons, Nikta, as it’s had the most recent and visible impact on everyone in the Fanewick.

The various divinities of the Fanewick each have their own opinion on what is happening in regards to the Witherwild corruption. While some enjoy nature’s newfound dominance, many of the lesser dieties are wary of how out of balance the Fanewick has become. While their behavior and motives may be inscrutable, they are more accessible than gods that watch down from on high.

Hyacynis: They Who Spread Small Blossoms. A friend of bees and tiny flowers, who has embraced the Witherwild after seeing their influence and domain swell (literally) to immense proportions. They’re enjoying this metastasizing growth and do not see a reason to end it.
Fulg: Stacker of Stones. A small god who favors tribute in the form of smooth, stacked river rocks. He grants an abundance of bivalve and limpet growth on the rocks where they can be easily harvested. He is largely uninformed about the problems Fanewick faces, and prefers it that way.
Qui’Gar: Whispered Sweetness for a Thorny End. A quiet god who presides over the deaths of those who die in thorny bushes and briar patches. Traditionally she doesn’t receive many visitors, but the Witherwild’s corruptive growth has made her job harder and upended her quiet existence.
Oove: Watcher of the Night Bloom. One of the few local gods that has never been seen, but is often heard in the wilds at night whispering directions to lost travelers pointing them to the nearest source of Night Bloom. Locals claim that he leads those who displease him, or harm the nocturnal creatures, into dangerous terrain. It’s rumored that he watches over the Fanewick nights from his home on the moon.
Ikla: Sky Painter. Ikla’s artistic prowess and talent are unmatched, painting the skies of each weekly sunrise and sunset over the Fanewick in a myriad of scintillating colors. The rest of the week they could not be lazier and their demeanor is exceedingly unpleasant, offended that anyone would ask a favor of them during their time off.
Rohkin: The Wandering Horn. Rohkin watches over the many herds of horned creatures that reside in the Fanewick. In happier times he preserved the balance of nature and civilization, preventing overhunting. But since the corruption of the Witherwild has taken hold he’s seen his herds change into unrecognizable, dangerous beasts.

These are but a small slice of the hundreds, if not thousands of Faint Divinities lurking, relaxing, hunting, and playing throughout Fanewick.

What Faint Divinities do the PCs acknowledge and tribute, if any?
How has the Witherwild changed the personalities and dispositions of the Faint Divintities player encounter?
Which gods ally themselves with Haven to preserve the Endless Spring? Which align with the Fanewick?

The Inciting Incident

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

With the Reaping Eye stowed in a secure vault beneath the central towner of Haven’s school for mages, seemingly impossible to recover, a secretive and dangerous rebel group, led by a mysterious figure known only as The Fanewraith (Wildborne Simiah, she/her), has hatched a plan to end the curse of the Witherwild: Find the The Great Owl, Nikta, and pluck out the Eye of Renewal. While this may solve the immediate problem… just as when Haven invaded, the long term consequences are not being considered.

Haven’s beleaguered spymaster, Kreil Dirn (Orderborne Drakona, he/they) is not a popular person in Haven. He is responsible for rooting out insurgents, stopping schemes before they have a chance to start, and keeping a close watch on Haven’s internal activities. Kriel has, openly, never agreed with High Magus Phylax’s (Highborne Human, he/him) decision to steal the Reaping Eye, and the consequences they’ve paid for that decision have been grimly vindicating.

Recently he uncovered the Fanewraith’s plot and is horrified by the possibilities of their success. Knowing he can’t send a troupe of Haven soldiers deep into the woods to hunt down the Fanewraith, stopping her before she enacts her desperate plan, Kreil uses their vast network of informants and spies to find a group of adventurers from within the Fanewick itself to bring the Fanewraith to swift justice.

The party is sent an invitation from Haven to meet with Kreil. But is his information correct? Does he have his own motivation or secret ambition? Whether they come from the Fanewick or Haven, the party will have to extend some trust to a person who is equally as dangerous and mercurial as the “enemy” they pursue. And what will they do when they find the Fanewraith? Bring her to justice? Side with her? Attempt to recover the Reaping Eye?

Kreil will advise the party to start their hunt for the Fanewraith in the treetop village of Alula, where he suspects she runs her operation.

Campaign Mechanics

Corruption from the Witherwild

Adversaries and Environments you use in this campaign can have the “Withered” tag added to their Type. When it does, also describe how the Witherwild has changed or impacted how it would normally operate or appear.

Anytime a PC takes Severe damage from an adversary or environment that is “Withered,” gain a Fear token and place it on a PC’s character sheet, now called a Wither token. When you do, the PC must roll their Fear die. If they roll at or below the number of Wither tokens on their sheet, they immediately take a scar and clear all tokens, describing how the Witherwild changes them permanently.

At the end of each session, clear all Wither tokens from the PC’s sheets and gain them as Fear. If a character ever dies with Wither tokens on their sheet, their body is instead taken over permanently by the Witherwild.

Session Zero Questions

What dangerous animal comes out during the weeks of night that isn’t out during the week of day?
What unique trait (appearance, smell, taste, etc.) does anything tainted by the Witherwild have?
What superstitions do you or your community have about traveling the Fanewick during the long nights?
What foraged food has become a staple of your community and how have they made it their own?
If you are from Fanewick, what commodity do you secretly enjoy that comes from Haven? If you’re from Haven, what delicacy from Fanewick can you not get enough of?

Map

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

[Map Image]

Five Banners Burning

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

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?

**** eaborne 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]