Welcome to the campaign diary of what’s been codenamed Fantasy Avengers. A campaign idea of superheroes in a fantasy setting has percolated within my brain for aeons. I occasionally pretend I’m going to run it, which no doubt gets eye rolls at best or engenders much disappointment at worst when I never get around to it.
This campaign diary will work through how the campaign gets to the table and then, with hope and a prayer, morph into actual play reports.
The Grammer of Creation
I don’t document a world encyclopedia. I create a space with ‘just enough structure’ for people to create consistently and add richness to it.
– Ian O’Rourke, X (formerly Twitter)
If you’re looking to create a setting focused on what people go on to create within it then you need to set out the grammar of the setting, as this provides everyone with the language to do so. This is important, and it’s why I’m spending time on it.
I guess some people may question why. It’s not like I will write this up into some guide and include all this stuff. I’ve learned that it still gets communicated as I use it in my language. The fact I can communicate the setting richly and consistently impacts the table.
The grammar of Creation is based on eight principles, three geographical zones and three different lenses. These interact to help me keep the setting focused.
We’ve covered the zones before when we lightly discussed how the vastness of Creation could be articulated similarly to how Star Wars describes its galaxy.
The observant and well-read of you will notice I’ve taken the lenses and the principles (albeit tweaked in the second case) from Fabula Ultima, a role-playing game based on Japanese console role-playing games. It’s always interesting how things come along that don’t so much provide you with answers but help you frame your thoughts into a structure.
The Eight Principles
A skill I’ve learned over the years is whatever it takes to achieve something; you can never go wrong by laying out the principles.
- Flow of Essence
- A Lost Golden Age
- Essence-tech Artefacts
- Empire and Conflict
- Points of Light
- Chaos and Decay
- Destiny v Fate
- Loci of Destiny
We can outline these principles as they give us a good understanding of the setting.
1. Flow of essence
Essence is all.
It is an essential part of Creation and one big narrative excuse. It’s what an exalted soul manipulates to manifest an Exalted’s powers. It’s a spiritual energy that flows through all things and is the raging energy in the tempest outside Creation. Essencetech is powered by it. Arcane powers utilise it both subtly and in vulgar ways. It powers the Dragonblooded Empire.
It represents spirituality while forging an ‘industry’ at the same time.
3. A Lost Golden Age
The First Age was a golden age of peace, prosperity, expansion, and the breaking down of frontiers. The Exalted delivered this, backed up by the stability provided by the Dragonblooded. The Exalted brought Creation under a compact of collaborative peace and discovery. The Exalted themselves sowed the decay of the First Age as they descended into acts of hubris and conflict driven by personal power.
2. Essence-tech Artefacts
Creation is littered with Essence-tech Artefacts from the relatively mundane to those no longer understood, as well as those still active and those nothing but ruins littered across Creation. The ability of the Arcane Assembly and the Guid of Articifers to maintain the Essence-tech of the First Age has fallen away or devolved into rote actions. Still, Essence-tech Artefacts are utilised and created; they’re just a shadow of the First Age wonders or unique and less prevalent.
4. Empire and Conflict
The Dragonblooded Empire is a nexus of power, and everyone else exists in the shadow of its military, political and economic power. It’s an imperialist institution. It may not have armies across creation, but that doesn’t matter, as its power is overbearing. The empire sucks in all resources. It retains the vestigates of lost knowledge.
5. Points of light
Out beyond the empire, as we move beyond or between the Middle Kingdoms we have points of light beyond which exists vast swathes of the beauty and horror of Creation. This is particularly true in the Elemental Reaches, where people have carved out everything from cities to small homesteads in their quest for freedom and independence.
6. Chaos and Decay
The powers that used to keep Creation in check are gone. Corruption eats at its heart. The houses of the Dragonblooded Empire vie for political power. Criminal syndicates prey on its citizens. The elemental reaches foster rebellion. The Middle Kingdoms chafe at their vassalage. Monsters and ancient creatures are once again arising across the vast expanse. It could well be the end of the Second Age.
7. Destiny v Fate
The conflict between destiny and fate is not only a theme but an actual manifest conflict within Creation. I’m only 70% sure why, and it’s certainly something that would need to come out in actual plat. Destiny and Fate are like the matter and antimatter of potential futures. They are always in conflict, albeit the loss of the Exalted naturally swayed things towards fate.
8. Loci of Destiny
The Exalted are loci of destiny. This is not only because they are the protagonists. It’s not just because they are powerful. Their very nature means they control their destiny rather than being defined by fate. They are the quintessential extraordinary individuals who alter the situation by their presence.
If fate had a Geiger counter for destiny an Exalted’s presence would send it screaming into the red.
The Three Lenses
Another tool that helps me is lenses. Lenses are different ways of looking at things. We can use different lenses to articulate facets of Creation without devolving into an encyclopedia. You will notice these have also been taken from Fabula Ultima.
1. High Fantasy
The vast imperial city covers a whole island, its towering buildings rising into the sky. Floating cities that roam creation collecting the empire’s tithe only to return and dock with their outer districts. The lightning rail network sends its tendrils from the imperial centre to the middle kingdoms. Airships with their fluctuating elemental rings fly through the sky. Ancient essence-tech artefacts are maintained in the vein of a lost religion, and ruins with technology no longer understood litter the landscape.
2. Natural Fantasy
The vast expanse of Creation is not civilized but a fast expanse of nature, be it endless forests, sky-touching mountains or lakes you can see your reflection in. The landscape hosts herds of strange creatures, mystical glens, monsters to strike fear in the soul, spirits to shatter one’s sanity and dangerous elemental forces. These landscapes are occasionally punctured by ancient ruins or ancient entities from below the surface.
The landscapes get even more astounding as the stability of creation gives way to the elemental borders.
3. Techno Fantasy
This is essence-tech artefacts representing as a fantasy ‘cyberpunk’. It’s shadows. Exploitation. Industry casting its shadow over rundown districts. At first, I thought this lens wasn’t part of the setting, but maybe it is. After all, what do the lower levels of the Imperial City look like?
While not as cyberpunk or techno-fantasy as the city in Final Fantasy VII, the lower levels are in shadow. It’s the place that sustains the higher levels regarding the artefacts and the labour. While not a feature across Creation, I think it is a valid lens for the island-sized Imperial City.
A Personal, Esoteric Observation
Stories, nominally ‘science fiction’, set on an alien world described in lush detail.
— TV Tropes
One of the main influences of my last campaign was a video game, so it’s no surprise I may well be doubling down on video game influences this time. While all of these influences are loosely inspired by rather than exact copies it’s becoming clear Japanese CRPGs and games like League of Legends are a big influence. You could also include the animation Arcane, based on League Legends, again not in any direct way (especially not the 19th-century tech aesthetic).
Just maybe through a plenarty romance filter and that’s where things get a bit esoteric.
If we check in with TV Tropes we can see the language around a Planetary Romance really hits. We see things like the science is largely handwaving and there being items of Lost Technology, while large parts of the world operate on a lower scale. Despite this weird ‘advancement’ we have a sort of Feudal Future. All this is true as Essence Tech is a total handwave and isn’t in any way science.
I have been watching John Carter and the new Dune film lately. John Carter is literally a planetary romance being an adaptation of Princess of Mars (there is a reason we have an Eternal Empress) while Dune, wait for it, is a planetary romance just surrounded by a Space Opera Universe (the original book at least). I keep saying this but, while nothing like Dune literally, it’s easy to see how some things are inspired by it or have analogues.
A quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life
— Dictionary.com
The romance comes in a similar way to the romance of the sea. It’s the mystery, excitement and remoteness of the Exalted experience. The relationship between people, institutions and ideas and how this intersects with being someone who can threaten or change those relationships.
And, Finally…
I think I have the setting nailed now. In some ways, that’s a strange thing to say as no maps exist, no descriptions of people and places. I haven’t even outlined what these Dragonblooded Houses are. I’m literally throwing in names like Dragonblooded, Arcance Assembly and Guild of Artificers I have no idea at this point if these names are going to stick or apply.
Some of these things will come ahead of the game, and some will not. I’m sure I’ll detail the Dragonblooded Houses at some point, but maybe none of the player characters will care initially. Or maybe one will and have some ideas, etc.
The important point is that I can imagine it and describe it consistently while it remains rich, vibrant and full of creative possibilities.