The First World The Points of Light in a Dark Time

The current age has no all-encompassing empire. The world is shrouded in a dark age, between the collapse of the last great empire of Nerath, and the rise of the next, which might be centuries away. Minor kingdoms prosper, to be sure: baronies, holdings, city-states. But the world isn’t carved up between nation-states that jealously enforce their borders. Each settlement appears as a point of light in the widespread darkness, a haven, an island of civilization in the wilderness that covers the world.

Those centers of civilization are few and far between. The soldiers of the big towns and cities might do a passable job of keeping the lands within a few miles of their settlements free of monsters and bandits, but most of the outlying towns and villages are on their own. Trade and travel do occur, but these are the purview of plucky merchants, brave souls, and the desperate. And even so, the most ambitious of those individuals are careful to stick to better-known roads. It might be safe enough within a day’s ride of a city or an hour’s walk of a village, but go beyond that and you are taking your life into your hands. A few difficult and dangerous roads tenuously link neighboring settlements together, but if you stray from them you quickly find yourself immersed in goblin-infested forests, haunted barrow fields, desolate hills and marshes, and monster-hunted badlands.

Many small settlements and strongholds are founded, flourish for a time, and then fall into darkness. The wild lands are filled with forgotten towers, abandoned towns, haunted castles, and ruined temples. Lost knowledge lingers in these places, and ancient magic set in motion by forgotten hands still flows in them. Ordinary folk shun these locations, fearing what might lie within. Even people living only a few miles away from such places might know them only by rumor and legend.

Even the members of the smallest villages, fortunately for them, have a few capable individuals and a bit of magic at their disposal. Normal people believe in magic and accept its power. They benefit from their hedge mage’s ability to ward off evil spirits, their wise woman’s talent for making effective herbal cures, and their priest’s capacity to call on the power of the gods to bless crops. Like these minor magicians, warriors are widespread enough that most villages enjoy adequate protection from day-to-day threats. Many such soldierly types trace their skills back to the armies of long-gone kingdoms, while others carry on the martial tradition of their people that dates to ancient times. Still others combine the old and the new, learning to fight as necessity dictates, creating a unique path.

In such a world, adventurers are aberrant. They are truly extraordinary people, driven by a thirst for excitement into a life that others would never dare lead. Commoners view them as brave at best and insane at worst. But they are heroes, compelled to explore the dark places of the world and take on the challenges that lesser women and men can’t stand against.

Some even become legends.