Welcome to Archestria

Welcome to the Archestria (ar-KES-tree-uh) 5e campaign, taking place in the medieval fantasy world of the same name! The WorldAnvil documentation here serves as a wiki organizing all available information about the world, as well as campaign rules and records. This page is a general guide to familiarize yourself with the campaign and world, but if you prefer to skip the details for now, proceed to Joining the Campaign to get started.
The admin and DM for this campaign is Eric Montijo. He can be reached at shadowlantern at gmail dot com with questions, concerns, or suggestions.

The Setting

Two hundred years after humanoidkind came to being, civilization has established its place within the natural world. Societies have risen: a plutocratic metropolis, nomadic warrior clans, subterranean cities, a realm of bickering noble houses, a spiritual forested commune, and a kingdom fighting to maintain a peaceful image constitute much of the explored world. Hidden treasures, decrepit ruins, and archaic documents chronicling the unknown pre-Origination history of the Ancient Ones dot the uncharted expanse. Instead of gods, the world's power comes from divine spirits that inhabit and vitalize the natural terrain. Planar travel is rare: only the Feywild and Inferno are reachable, and their inhabitants are more than happy to flood the world with their flavor of chaos.
Dark magic threatens to anger and corrupt the spirits. Greed and avarice create tension among societies, and rumors of war are spreading. While fiends hunt for souls and fey inject chaos, other forces loom in the not-so-distant shadows of the world, waiting. The secrets of the Ancient Ones lay waiting in the unexplored wilderness, and may prove vital to the preservation of life as we know it.

Two centuries of society

Humanoidkind spontaneously materialized about 200 years ago. People of many sizes, races, and apparent ages found themselves in a wide, colorful, empty world. They quickly built up cities for shelter, and society gradually formed, leading to life as it is known today. Curiously, however, ancient ruins more than 200 years old are found hidden throughout the landscape. Countless questions surround the Ancient Ones who built and inhabited these forgotten cities.

Spirits, not gods

Divine magic takes a different form in Archestria: the form of Spirits, which enrich the world with life, light, and energy. Spirits often take on elemental forms: spirits of plants dance within lush forests, water spirits flow along rivers before returning to the sky to form clouds, and fire spirits wander warm places looking for kindling to inhabit. The spirits are the source of divine magic in Archestria; there are no gods. Divine character classes gain their power from the spirits: clerics commune with spirits relevant to their chosen domain, paladins swear their holy oath to the spirits of the world, and druids call on the power of nature spirits to cast spells and shapeshift.
Spirits are typically invisible, but may appear when called, created, or agitated. They are not alive or sentient, contrary to the semblance of emotion in their movements and actions. Instead, they represent the liveliness of the natural world- they can wander, they can vanish and materialize, and they can be harmed. Pollution and dark magic can harm and corrupt the spirits in an area, leaving the environment scarred and weak. Agitated spirits sometimes take on the form of elementals and throw violent tantrums in corrupted places, leaving tainted lands unsafe for travel.

Planar travel, or lack thereof

Many D&D settings incorporate multiple planes of existence, with the familiar Earthlike material plane, elemental planes of water/fire/etc, the dreary Shadowfell, the eccentric Feywild, the demonic Abyss and devilish Nine Hells, and many others. In this campaign, there are very few planes and planar travel is rare, although they are popular as concepts. Only four planes are reachable beyond the material plane:

• The Feywild: A colorful forested river flows downhill endlessly through season-themed fey realms.
• The Inferno: A fiery, hellish realm that is home to all manner of fiends, including devils and demons.
• Astral Plane: A shifting, starry void.
• Ethereal Plane: A ghostly parallel world that can peer into the material plane.

The Campaign

Wiki Layout

The articles in this wiki are organized in a tree:

• Campaign: Information about the campaign, missions, player characters, and rules.
• World Atlas: Information about geography and landmarks in Archestria.
• World Encyclopedia: All other information about the world, such as NPCs, organizations, and monsters.

Italicized text is used throughout the wiki to provide additional detail such as examples and justifications. It does not provide new info and can be skipped, but may provide helpful elaboration from time to time.

Managing Player Characters

Each player may create and play as many characters as they wish in this campaign, although they may only play one at a time. Players are responsible for tracking aspects of their own characters such as level, wealth, and items. This tracking is based on the honor system, and cheating will not be tolerated in any form. See Character Creation & Options for details about creating a new character.
Character that die or fail to return home from a mission may fall under an unplayable status; such characters must be revived or rescued to be played again. Alternatively, a player that has lost a character permanently may choose to create a new one one level lower, allowing them to keep up with other players. See Managing Your Characters for more about character state.

Mission-based Gameplay Format

Each session of this campaign is portrayed as a mission, where a group of player characters will travel to some location (starting from their home village) to chase an objective. Players and DMs alike can schedule missions on the calendar. A list of suggestions for new missions is provided in Current Events.

• Sessions will be run in person only.
• 3 to 5 players can participate in a standard mission.
• A standard mission is 3 to 4 hours long.
• Each player may participate in up to two missions each month.

Ambiguity and Suspension of Disbelief

Time and space are a little ambiguous in this campaign; this provides a deliberate flexibility in storytelling for both players and DMs. Some suspension of disbelief may required to handle incongruent timelines.
Time. Missions generally occur in the same chronological order that they are played in the real world, but multiple missions in different places might occur at the same time. For instance, if a mission takes up a week of in-world time, that doesn't mean that a week has passed in an unrelated region or storyline. To help support this ambiguity in concurrent stories, there is no definitive "current date".
Space. Everything depicted on the world map canonically exists. However, in certain areas of the world, there may be more roads and villages than are shown on the map. This allows players to create new locations that they can incorporate into their character's backstory. Flexible regions include: the Bazen Lowlands, Scorch Alley, Solaki, and the Spiritwood. (Future: a region of Subterranea will be added to this list.) Locations and villages that are added retroactively have always been there, they just weren't noticed before!

Pillars of Play

D&D experiences can be sorted into three pillars of play. All three should be well presented in this campaign, though many missions will focus on certain ones.

• Exploration. RPGs provide a chance to explore wondrous lands, encounter strange monsters, investigate fantastical mysteries, and puzzle out hidden secrets.
• Roleplay. Acting out your character in social interactions can be a fun way to craft a story, as well as an opportunity to try new things or experience life as another person.
• Combat. Some players love the tactical game of building their character, finding loot, and trying to optimize their power in battle.

Player Conduct

See Safety and Etiquette for details about conduct and safety. These rules should be common sense- don't be a jerk to other people at the table; we are here to have fun together. Some mature themes will appear in this campaign; if there are particular themes that you are uncomfortable with, please inform the DM in advance so they can avoid those topics during the game.