We all know the stories. Adventurers from a thousand kingdoms delving into dungeons dark and depths, facing countless monsters. They save the world, fulfill prophecies, and defeat evil.
Around them, powerful mages, the servants of the Gods, agents of eternal evils and, of course, the dragons, play games spanning millennia.
But what of the time before these dungeons ? When the world was young, before the first spellbook was written or the first blade forged, when the mortal races tried to survive a world of gods and monsters ?
You are a band of mortals, in such a young world, recently freed from boundage and trying to survive, below the notices of gods, devils and demons.
Will you rise to your full potential, and create a civilization able to face the danger of this world ? Will you fall and be forgotten ? Will you leave behind dungeons to delve for the brave souls of tomorrow ?
We shall see.
It is a night like many others, for a nameless people. Around the fire, kindled from the precious embers kept by the fire-keepers, they eat meager meals of roots and insects, hurdle together and share stories.
The stories of a people born of…
[] Vermines feasting on a god's corpse
The vermines feasted on the result of an unplanned death, and where filled with might, mutated and raised to intellect. They are…
-Hard to kill, their body empowered by divine energy able to survive and healed from blows that would have reduced to paste or crippled others mortals.
-Always Mutating, their bodies slowly, but visibly shifting from the uncontrolled power coursing their body. This is a people of all shape, color and size, able to suddenly develop immunity to a poison only to die from spontaneity manifesting tumors.
[] Small servants of a death god
The servants/slaves/tools without will of one of the makers of the world, were suddenly given freedom and mortality by the sudden death of their lord, expelled from a divine domain like unneeded waste. They are…
-Enduring, able to survive most illnesses and the passing of centuries before their bodies fail, a fragment of their lost immortality.
-Fair, with beautiful forms and voices. Such things please the powers of this world.
[] Apes forced to live away from their burned down forests.
Below the notice of all, through the slow process of natural changes and thanks to great luck, homeless apes were able to rise to consciousness and to the rank of the mortal races. They are…
-Inborn Tool-Users, naturally inclined by their evolution to scavenge, adapt and use everything they can to compensate for the weakness of their bodies.
- Filled with Stamina, mental and physical. This is a people able to run entire days and work ceaselessly for their goals. The endurance of survivors.
But they do not know of their origin, lost in the mist of time and the endless wars the gods fight, their unity when making the world forgotten.
What they know, what they will remember until their nameless tribe is extinct, are their masters. Those that ruled them, protected them somewhat and used them as meals, tools or toys.
Those masters were…
[] Giants
Brutish tools of the world-makers, shapers of mountains and rivers, the giants are now free from their duties. They hunt and feast, enjoying the boon of their natural might and size. They regularly bring over mortals to their camps, for the ease of having servants and snacks at hand.
More than all the giants like to eat, and for them the people of the tribe cooked, knowing everyday that their masters could decide on a whim that they would not be the roasters, but the roasted.
From their bondage, your people have learned how to survive brutish beasts, and start with more Survival Points, used to hunt, make tools and spread over new territories.
They have learned the arts of :
- Cooking, how to prepare meals that bring joy to the soul and strength to the body, and preserve efficient food for long treks.
- Firemaking, how to not simply gather and keep the fire of burning trees, but use the secrets of the firestone and the fire drill to birth fire.
[] Dragons
The great flying lizards, born to shape the magic and weather of the world for their makers, they now spread beyond all horizons, each defending jealousy of their territories, the shadows of their wings bringing terror to all beasts and all mortals.
These prouds beasts enjoy power and feasts, but they enjoy even more things of beauty. For the cunning dragon, mortals are the greatest of hoards, one that can produce from raw matters more objects to join a dragon's possessions. And like all parts of a hoard, the mortals are at the mercy of the dragon's whims.
Your people were one such mortal hoard.
From their bondage, your people have learned to find new shapes and forms each day to please impatient masters, and start with more Learning points, used to discover and master new knowledge and arts.
They have learned the arts of :
-Advanced Craft, how to make tools of stone more beautiful and precise than those worked by other mortals, and how to martel gold and silver into jewelry.
- Art, how to engrave and paint images of the people and their stories, keeping the past alive in sculptures, beautiful tools and painted cave walls.
[] The Firsts
Those made to govern the unseen order of the world and nature, with bodies shaped like those of the mortals but utterly immortal, and souls filled with power, able to command the world with their simple thoughts.
For those beings, mortals are but ornaments, to please the ears and eyes, and never be on their ways, or else.
From their bondage, your people have learned to survive the night-incomprehensibles games of the Firsts, and start with more Culture Points, used to advance their society and create new traditions.
They have learned the arts of :
-Singing, how to communicate emotions and share stories through the voices, a pale reflection of their old masters' power.
-Hiding and Distracting, how to detect dangers, hide from it, be below its notice and distract it away from our people.
For many generations, the people endured under the cruel rule of their masters, knowing that they could destroy the people of the tribe without effort.
But, like the gods that made the world, our masters began to wage wars against one another, and our people could finally escape them, the old tyrants too arrogant to ever consider their well-cowed slaves could ever seek freedom.
From our master, we took something, a payment for all our sufferings.
[] Their Blood
Our people were used in all possible ways by our old masters. As meals, as tools, and as toys. From the "play" of the masters, despite all the tears, we were able to steal some of the powers that flow in their veins.
Even now, each generation, a handful are born with traces of the master's power.
Start with a minor amount of the master's racial traits and power in the tribe's population.
[] The attention of one of their God
They are stories of being of good in this world, who do not use or devour those weaker than them. Our tribe did not meet such beings amongst the masters, but one of their gods took pity upon us, and even now, sometimes we can hear the god's whispers in our dreams.
Some say kind gods prefer kind worshipers, no matter their might.
Start with a minor amount of attention from a benevolent god of the master's pantheon
[] One of their lesser servant, now our first friends
The masters are not cruel only with mortals, but with all life, and our pain was shared by beings that could not think or use tools, but could feel.
When we saved ourselves, we saved them too, and now we will be companions until the end of the tribe.
Start with one animal connected to the master as animal companions.
Now, finally, the stories of the past end, and the stories of now begin, for the tribe has reached a land far away from the masters, where we will be able to live free.
This land is….
[] An endless plain
There is nothing of interest to the masters here, only a great sea of herbs. The wise say this land cannot feed the masters or great monsters.
Life will be hard, but free from those that would crush us.
[] A forest with strangely few animals
Few beasts, no monsters. This land would be a paradise…if we did not feel watched, as if eyes looked at us from the leaves of every tree.
But the watchers did not strike us, and seem to only react when we stay too long in one place or take too much.
[] A cave-filled mountain, surrounded by a rotting divine corpse
Below us there are great battles, as monsters fight over the colossal corpses of the god. But here, we are below notice, above the battles, and with many valleys and caves to explore and inhabit.
Perhaps one day the battle will end, and the monsters climb the mountains, but until them we should be safe.
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My muse is unruly, and wants to be heard...
This is a story about all those civilizations that had to left behind the ruins adventurers explore. Go wild, and be the Netheril of a fresh D&D world.
