Setting Overview
World Type: Earthlike
World Technology: stone age to prototype firearms
Tone: High Fantasy | Semi-realistic | Intrigue | Sandbox
Rating: M for Mature
Astrology: 1 Moon | 1 Sun | Day/Night Cycle
Unique Astrology: Constellations are created when gods are made and their constellation is destroyed when the god is unmade. Deific eclipses, thanks to that one godcorpse in orbit.
Magic: High magic. See: Magic
Planes: Evara (Material Plane), Divine Dimension, Dark Dimension, Ethereal Plane, Astral Plane). See: The Planes
Physical Laws: Earthlike, with air, tides, polar ice caps, etc. Gravity and other physical laws exist but can be bent by magic or broken by the gods
Biomes Available: Aquatic, Grassland, Forest, Desert, and Tundra (sub-biomes also available, i.e., freshwater aquatic and saltwater aquatic)
Inhabitants: 50 playable races, a fuckton of animal species, a fuckton of monsters, & planar outsiders. See: Playable Races
Inhabited Locations: Sky, Underground, Land, On Water, Underwater
Exploration: The world is not fully known/explored. Travel is dangerous.
Number of Nations: 14. See: Nations
Cultural Inspiration and Themes: Tribal, Fantasy/High Fantasy, Medieval, Nordic, European, East Asian, South American, South Asian, Polynesian, Steampunk, Solarpunk, Dark Fantasy, Mafia
Modes of Transportation (from most to least common/accessible): perambulation/swimming/flying/wheelchair (i.e., travel by moving yourself), Beast of burden, Cart/carriage/boat, Magical beast/summoned beast, Lightning rail, Airship
Ease of Transportation: Traditional ships are fastest and cheapest mode of long-distance transportation. Pilgrimage is a regular part of travel. However, travel is still dangerous and unreliable - pioneers, cartographers, trailblazers, and adventurers are rare. World Age: 10000 years old
Years on Record: 3000 years definitely on record; the rest of history is patchy
Beliefs: Names have power, Gods walk the world, Literacy is necessary to please the gods, Tattooing/intentional scarification is bad, Creationism and evolution are both true
Deities: A Pantheon of 16 gods. See: The Gods
Holy Days: (Also known as “holidays” but they are actually holy/tied to some god/religion) Zahra, Bahramal, Metamorphosis, Remembrance, Chowilawu, Lunar Festival
Cultural Universals
Economic Means, Explained
The people of Evara fall into three economic categories: poor, middle class, and wealthy. The typical split is 60%-30%-10%. Mobility across socioeconomic categories is culturally dependent.
The "poor" lifestyle category includes common farmers, unskilled laborers, and certain tradesmen and merchants. They have 40 silver or fewer silver in their pockets at any given time, but often much less.
Three out of every ten people live a middle class lifestyle. This group includes skilled laborers, prosperous traders and shop owners, most nobility, mid-to-high-level clergy, and low-level adventurers. Middle class individuals typically have a few hundred gold pieces (or more) in fungible wealth.
One in every ten people fall into the wealthy lifestyle category. Includes barons of commerce, merchant lords, mid-to-high-level adventurers, some top clergy, and royalty. People in the wealthy category have access to a few thousand gold pieces on hand at any given time.
LGBTQ+ lifestyles are widely accepted
If you take the gods as your model (which Evarans do), the full range of sexual and gender identities is normal. When the King of the Gods takes lovers of all gender identities and one of the marks of his favor is the ability to change physical sex at will, it is extremely difficult to claim that being trans or gay or queer or polyamorous is unnatural or immoral.
Literacy
There is a social understanding that you need to know how to read... Learn how to read otherwise the gods will get mad! As such, most people learn how to read and write, no matter their social status or formal education.
World Beliefs
Gods Walk the Earth
The existence of the gods isn't hypothetical. It is a real, known quantity. Gods and their avatars may walk among mortals, listening to prayers, restoring faith, and taking favors. Because of the long time-horizon of gods, they may go decades or centuries between personal visits, but they do come.
Names
Names have power. Someone who has your true name can therefore have power over you. People in Evara typically have three names - a given name, a family (or profession- or trait-based) name, and a ‘true’ name. Different cultures have different naming conventions, so some may have more or fewer names. The given name is selected by a child’s parents at or near birth. A person’s true name is chosen or revealed during a coming of age ceremony. These ceremonies vary by race and culture, but one thing is constant: the adult name is your ‘true’ name. People generally keep their names secret. Entrusting someone with your true name is a sign of absolute faith.
Every man, woman, and child understands that to speak a god’s true name is taboo. Naming a god will draw the god’s attention to you, and you probably won’t like that attention. Gods are only referred to by monikers given to them by mortals, with the exception of Leverett and Thara whose names were lost to time.
Ancient/Dead Languages
These are languages that only exist in written form and have no more native speakers. Knowing the modern version of a language does not guarantee the ability to understand archaic versions.
Evolution & Creationism
Evolution and creationism are both true. Mortals are not immune to time and time changes all things, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.
We are Not Alone
Although there are no other planets visible in the night skies of Evara, people still have a concept of "outsiders". Astral bodies such as stars, comets, and asteroids still hurtle through space. Life teems within the Dark Dimension and the Ethereal Plane. These sources of sentience can be benign or dangerous, but certainly, they exist. Some cultures have no contact with other planes and do not believe they exist; their terrors are imagined and the people who imagine them are merely exaggerating.
M For Mature
This setting is rated M for Mature and the Apotheosis campaign is recommended for players 18+. Sensitive content is not the purpose of the Apotheosis group, but the Evara setting has elements that may not be suitable for all audiences. The list below is to make you aware of themes that may arise (not guaranteed to arise): ︎- Body horror/mutation/disease/plague
- Drugs, drug use
- Corruption/madness/changes to player characters
- Death/graphic death/corpses/undeath
- Gore/graphic violence/descriptions of violence/violent imagery
- Loss, including the loss of close family members like parents, children, or pets
- Permanent character death ︎︎
- Nudity/sex/(consensual) sexual content
- culturally sensitive topics (Crime/organized crime, illness, slavery, war)
- Trolley car problems (i.e., moral dilemmas where you may feel like there is no way to make a "good" choice)
