The world

We woke with nothing

Nobody remembers arriving. Everyone remembers the first night.

We woke in tall wet grass at the edge of a forest, strangers to each other, holding only our names and whatever was in our hands. Some had swords. Most had nothing. None of us could say where we had come from, and the few who tried told stories that did not agree.

The land was green and generous by day, and we did not trust it. We knew one thing at once, the way an animal knows it: alone, we would die here. So we gathered, and on the first high ground we could hold we raised a palisade. That was the first city.

The land does not want us. The beasts come at night, the weather turns on us, and the dead do not always stay down. Every road out of the heartland is a gamble. Whatever this world is, it is trying to be rid of us, and the only answer we have found is to refuse.

The first city is where every survivor begins. Its smiths and traders keep it standing, its walls keep the night out, and its gate opens onto a heartland that is kinder than what lies beyond it, but never kind.

“I dream of a city burning, and of a light that chose who would be carried out of it. I do not know if it is a memory. I do not know if I was chosen, or left behind.”Overheard in the first city
  • The first cityThe first walls we built, and the only ones we trust. Every journey starts at its gate.
  • The heartlandThe green centre around the city. Lakes, forest and old stone nobody remembers raising. The most forgiving ground in the world, which is not saying much.
  • The eight beyondThe heartland sits at the centre of nine lands. The other eight are rumours, and each is harder than the last.
  • The HollowWhat some call the world itself. They say it is listening, and that it is patient.

Day and night

Three hours of light, three hours of dark

A day in the world lasts six real hours: three of daylight, three of night. It runs four times in every real day, and the weather follows real weather, so the world keeps pace with ours.

Day3 hoursClear sight, open roads, the safer time to travel and haul.
Night3 hoursFruitful but dangerous. The night gives more to those who brave it, and takes more from those who fail.
SightLimitedAt night you see only as far as the light reaches.
TorchesRequiredCarry light or walk blind.

Day and night are planned and not in the alpha yet. The exact rewards and dangers of the night are still being designed.