This section of the site is about Exsurge Auroram, a setting I’m developing for the Arise RPG, currently under playtest.

Current Events

The Shadow Lord dominated the world with his Nightmare for a long time, but now it’s receding. Much of the Nightmare still persists but no longer dominates. Nobody is sure if “the Shadow Lord” is even a real person.

at the same time, the Divine Empress is leading her society in a program of conquest, promising an end to darkness through fire and metal.

Individual communities, collectively called the Constellations, exist. They have been self sufficient since the Nightmare came, their citizens huddled fearfully in whatever sliver of light they’ve been able to find until now. Perhaps they live under the domain of a spirit ruler, in the mists of a haunted forest, in a forgotten valley or high mountain peak away from the Nightmare’s reach.

Regardless, much has been forgotten, and the old maps are wrong - the Nightmare twisted both the world and its inhabitants.

Now adventurers set forth, to reconnect, remember, learn anew, and cleanse the darkness that’s left.

Technology

The technology available to people is erratic. Some adventurers carry guns, firing on obscure principles that don’t seem to involve conventional magia. Advanced metallurgy, animated elements, crystalline power sources or “computers”, and other things can all be found.

The Nightmare destroyed much of the infrastructure of whatever world came before it. Whatever artifacts of technology remain, the making of them has largely been lost, forgotten, or buried.