This story takes place in a fantasy world, but it is very much low fantasy, though it is not a particularly dark or gritty world.
The story takes place in a region of the world known as The Shattered Kingdom, a realm where Orcs and Goblins, Elves and Dwarves live only in the imagination of children. It is a place where people are ruled by their local nobility, Barons and Earls for example.
There are many stories about what happened to the king and royalty but the most prominent is that a great gluttonous king had fifty children to his twenty wives. As they were taken from their mothers on birth and raised together and as there were only 5 years between the youngest and the oldest, no-one knew who was the oldest. When the king ate himself to death, the children fell among themselves fighting. They carved out petty kingdoms and warred amongst themselves causing a time of great strive. Eventually their nobles tired of the wars and refused to fight any longer. Many of the petty kings were assassinated, many fled and the nobles agreed to manage their lands in peace. The petty kings will continue to fight until only one remains and he will return to take his rightful throne. This story is many generations old now and no-one takes them seriously.
There are several forms of magic in the world, the most prominent is that as practised by the Magi. A Mage will study the language of the ancients for many years and learn from their ancient tomes. These books are rare and jealously guarded but they bring their owners fabulous power. Mages are rare, most who try cannot learn the many ancient languages required, many perish on dangerous expeditions into the wilderness in search of the texts they need and those who somehow survive and return will inevitably kill themselves in a deadly magical accident.
Another, very different magic is practised by the witches and warlocks. They call their abilities miracles and they are shunned by society because of the strange and perverse rituals they perform. The church has decreed that any proven witch or warlock shall be put to death, though trials are fair and there has not been an execution for over a hundred years.
This story starts in a village called Millbrook. All of the players have spent their whole lives there. They all attend church every Sunday, lead simple lives and live comfortably. The village is lead by a council of elders who keep the village running smoothly and the Earl of Rame, the local ruler lives here and runs his own farm. It is a rural area and quite poor, though everyone has enough food, comfortable shelter and reasonable spare time. Notable village residents include:
Kitto, the Parish Priest - a young priest who lives in the vicarage and tends to the peoples spiritual needs efficiently and professionally. He does not answer to the council or the Earl, only to his Deacon.
Nessa, The medicine woman - The oldest person anyone can remember, Nessa is very stuck in her ways. She is not a particularly skilled herbalist and though is a member of the council, rarely attends. She lives on the outskirts of the village slightly into the woods.
Casvelyn - The retired mage - It is rumoured that Casvelyn worked for one of the outcast petty kings and can, with a snap of his fingers lay an entire army down, dying of terrible wounds. In his self proclaimed retirement, he farms, badly. His crops twist and wither, his livestock birth mutants and sickly beasts yet he continues to plug away at the land. He holds himself aloof from the villagers and hardly ever talks to them. He is a self confessed atheist but attends church every Sunday. He does not seem to have any friends.
Padern, The Earl of Maker - Padern is the Earl by birth but he is content to just run his little farm and he runs it well. Popular with almost everyone, Padern is just as likely to spend an evening in the tavern as he is on a diplomatic visit to a neighbouring ruler.
A map of the Earldom of Rame can be found here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18357586/Earldom%20of%20Rame.png
A note on gender: This part of the world is not particularly sexist. Women perform many roles traditionally held by men and vice versa. You may choose to be any gender you want and while I have made an effort to keep the cards gender neutral, if a specific term has snuck in, please consider it interchangeable with the word for the other gender.
A note on race: As above, this is not a prejudiced part of the world and there is barely any racism. In my mind, the people have olive coloured skin and North Mediterranean features - think Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek or Turkish. Because the vast majority of fantasy art portray Caucasian characters, I have not tried to stick to this when choosing art, which is only ever supposed to convey a general feeling as opposed to being accurate representations.
Above all else this is your story and no matter who you wish to play, make it clear how you would like NPC’s to treat your character and that can become canon.
EDIT: Some of the character cards are designed to be chosen only once each. As I’m unsure if deleting the taken ones will mess up the characters who hold the cards, I’ll leave a list here of the ones that are gone:
Poacher, Marksman, Devout
Don’t worry if the cards left seem less than heroic, in this story your characters will grow and change dramatically. You will be able to become the exact hero you desire. Think of the cards as choosing your past, your starting point and you will develop into someone quite different as the story progresses. Don’t feel you have to match the starting cards to the hero you wish to become either, doing so may force your character to endure a “one dimensional” phase where you are quite heavily typecast - a warrior who was once a strong woodsman may find that he does not have the cards for creativity later on in the game.
Hosted and narrated by:
William Jones (SleepyWill)
Started 05/25/14.
Scenes played: 11
License: Community License
