Alkhemia

Session Zero

Commitment and Expectations

The game will be play-by-post, but with a time window on Sunday morning/afternoon for some concerted progress, such as major events.

• Sheep: 11 AM to 2 PM (Mexico Time)
• Eire: 12 PM to 3 PM (Mountain Time)
• Vex: 2 PM to 5 PM (Eastern Time)

Players will create appropriate characters for the game, two apiece. The GM will be responsible for all NPCs unless otherwise noted. As suggested by Sheep, we'll start with a group Brought Together by Fate.

• Bonds will be critical. I will be using the optional rule from p.220 in the Core Rulebook to allow PCs to start with a Rank 1 Bond.
  • What emotional or familial connections exist between the characters?
  • Have your characters met in the past? Are there tensions or rivalries?
  • What do you have in common? Beliefs, enemies, past experiences?
• Sheep noted that he wanted a mixture of childhood friends and total strangers.
• Vex suggested orphans raised by the same governess before being adopted out.

Tone and Themes

The tone should be lighthearted with tense moments, akin to a Tales game. Characters should be compatible but do not necessarily need to be friends. Good and evil should be easily told apart, though some grey areas are acceptable. Disagreements and tension between characters are alright as long as they are not outright antagonistic towards each other.

Unanswered questions:

• Are there any themes you strongly wish to explore during play?

Rules and Challenge

We'll check for experience after facing a hardship. For example, if there's a dungeon, experience gains will come after the dungeon. If there's a long session of treating with hostile locals to earn their trust, experience gains will come after that. And so on.

I'm considering adopting the Blitz rules for combat XP, and will be using the Procedural Hex Travel rules created by Aaron Jolliffe along with a few tables from d4 Caltrops for overland travel, but intend to otherwise use the core rules and official atlases only.

• Sheep noted that while some challenge is accepted, narration and story should come first.
• Vex feels like he might like to max out his character.

Safety

As expected, we're all fairly familiar with each-other's preferences, but we did draw a hard line against sexual abuse or assault, outside of potential backstory elements.

Unanswered questions:

• The depiction of violence. By default, Fabula Ultima expects little elements of gore and blood: much like in classic JRPGs, death is portrayed as a character kneeling or vanishing in a cloud of spiritual particles — but still talk about the kind of scenes and descriptions people are okay with.
• The nature of evil. Story elements such as mind control, the persecution of a minority, or violent imperialism are all common tropes in tabletop games, but for some, they are very real and tangible threats. Strive to make sure the game is a safe space.

The World of Gaia

The heavens of Gaia would be most unfamiliar to a denizen of Earth. The sun is distant and, though bright, does not warm the surface of Gaia as effectively as Earth's sun does; the poles of the world are frozen, impassible glaciers that can harbour no life. The moon looms large, making the land unstable, with towering mountains and sea-side cliffs impeding the travel of explorers. Finally, a trio of glittering rings circle the world, remnants of unknown origin which serve to illuminate the land even at night.

Beneath the heavens, the lands are far more treacherous than would be familiar to a native of Earth. Weather is frequent and fierce, and the lands are occupied not only by beasts, but also by monsters... yet man has somehow managed a foothold here, all the same. Everything here bears a soul, and through those souls they are connected to the Sea of Souls, the place where all life begins and ends.

Gaia is a vast world, still in the early days of discovery. Distant lands lie unexplored, awaiting the footsteps of man...

The Kingdom of Venira and Surrounding Areas

The Kingdom of Venira and Surrounding Areas

Dominating the known world, the Kingdom of Venira, ruled over by King Klair the Fifth, is a land suffering the vagaries of the past. Centuries ago, the development of alchemy led to a reputed golden age... but only ruins remain of that era. The official histories state that rampant overuse of alchemy led to corruption of the land, resulting in tainted and twisted terrain, malignant monstrosities, and even warped spirits; for a long period, alchemy was anathema, forbidden to be practiced, though this prohibition has not been enforced for a generation. What remains of the damage from that era lies buried beneath the surface of the land... and none are certain of its current effects.

Venira Proper

Everything that lies between the mountains of the Comb comprises the Kingdom; none of the surrounding settlements are powerful enough to threaten Venira's autonomy, and so the dynasty has remained for centuries. Historically the Kingdom claimed the whole of the continent, but it has withdrawn to its current borders within the last hundred years, unable to maintain a sufficient military presence to keep its claim over the Principalities or the desert to its east.

Despite the relative peace of the land, a standing army nonetheless surveils the land and serves as the enforcement arm for the King's tax collectors. Such protections are necessary, not only from bandits, but also from the corrupted creatures which roam the land, collectively referred to as chimaera by the scholars of the world. Most settlements sit behind walls for their own protection. In recent years, veteran explorers and adventurers have claimed that the monsters have grown larger, more vicious, and perhaps more worryingly, smarter. As their origin is unclear, it's not known if this is a natural consequence of their evolution, or if something or someone is manipulating the creatures.

Life is not all bad, however. In many places, magic is used along with engineering to produce practical technology for use by the populace, lending the people a quality of life not experienced by prior generations. The army manages to maintain peace and order throughout the land, and life is good for the majority.

The capital city, also called the City of Nobles, is a place of strict order. Tensions have grown in the city of late, with preparations being mounted for something that no one is quite clear on. Rumour has it that the search is on for an heir... this, despite the fact that the royal family already has a daughter.

The capital is also home to the Veniran College of Magic, which teaches all known disciplines of magic and works to reverse the damage alchemy has done to the world. Not everyone believes that alchemy is inherently bad, and thus even that is practiced here... but the people at large are still wary of it, given its history.

Demographics

Most people of Venira are human, though a smattering of every species can be found throughout the Kingdom. Other known species include the light and dark elves of the Twin Queendoms, the beastfolk of the desert, and the dwarves of the Combs.

Oasis and the Fallen City

East of Venira, across the Comb, lies a barren desert. The further east one travels, the more the earth dries and decays, until nothing remains but dunes and valleys of endless sand and salt. Somewhere amidst the dunes lies the broken wreckage of the Fallen City, a place which was once reputed to fly through the sky... until the alchemy that sustained it failed, and it crashed to earth, destroying the land beneath it and resulting in the desert that remains today. Rumour has it that the ruins of the Fallen City still lie host to secrets... and some have claimed to see people walking beneath the dunes...

Unlike the cooler temperatures of the plains of Venira, the desert sands are hot, forcing many to wear lighter and more exposed clothing than is typically seen. It wasn't always like this; some histories of Venira which record sightings of the Floating City (while it was still called such) also note that the temperature of the region grew warmer only after it fell.

Between the dunes and the mountains lies a small settlement, Oasis, home to the native beastfolk of the region. A poor settlement at best, it is the only independent town in the region; any other settlements tend to be camps or outposts belonging to other kingdoms with interests in the rich mineral wealth of the area, not to mention whatever secrets lie buried in the desert. In addition to the natives, the desert also became a popular place of exile; many of the criminals and downtrodden have gravitated toward Oasis as a result, making it a dangerous place to live and work.

The Eastern Sea and the Kelp Jungle

In contrast to the Ceaseless Storm on the continent's western banks, the eastern sea is comparatively placid. There are other threats here, however, that make exploration of the region difficult. One of them is a vast region of undersea jungle formed of kelp; though the wildlife here is plentiful and varied, the kelp causes the sea currents to jostle and shift frequently, and the calmer sea does nothing to disrupt this.

A large sailing vessel from the Kingdom of Venira, the Invincible, is said to have attempted sail into the region and sunk after becoming ensnared in the kelp. Some few survivors of the wreck, however, claim it was not the kelp which sunk the ship, but a clan of undersea hunters that lived there...

The Principalities

Southwest of Venira, through the mountains, lies an idyllic region known as the Principalities. Occupied by a fiercely independent people, it has resisted any sort of consolidation, resulting in a land of numerous small city-states and colonies, all in contention over the agricultural bounty of the area. Once a subject of the Kingdom of Venira, as the threat from the chimaera grew, the people of the region rebelled, and Venira chose to shun the Principalities, leaving them to their own devices.

Because of the fractitious nature of the area, governments rarely last longer than fifty years before splitting or merging as need be; as such, the settlements of the region tend to be remade on a regular basis. Alliances and squabbles between settlements are complex and difficult to keep track of, but this doesn't prevent outside forces from attempting to influence decision-making for their own benefit.

The best known and most stable settlement in the region is the coastal town of Merbord, currently dating forty years of establishment. Though primarily home to fishermen and boat-people, rumours persist that Merbord is a nest of pirates which terrorize both the Queendoms to the north and the western coast of the Kingdom of Venira, seemingly unfazed by the Ceaseless Storm. Those who live here are a rough and harsh people, to whom only strength and coin matter.

The Ceaseless Storm

The sea to the west of the Comb is endlessly agitated due to a confluence of factors. Most people who venture out into the ocean stay to the south, crossing the inland sea between the Kingdom of Venira and the Principalities, or to the north, through the frigid waters leading to the Queendoms. This suffices to protect sailors most of the time, but on occasion, the storms grow intense, and enormous tidal waves form which crash upon the shores of the lands bordering the storm; the most severe of these have been known to wipe smaller settlements off the map, swallowing them up in the sea. Fears persist of a monster wave washing inland into Venira.

A very few people have braved the endless storm in the midst of the sea, and though maddened by their experience, return to claim that at the heart of the storm lies an island harbouring a terrible secret. Over time, these tales have led to the region also being known by another name: the Forsaken Land. Is this rumoured Forsaken Land the cause of the Ceaseless Storm? Or is it just a graveyard of the foolish and the damned?

The Twin Queendoms

North of the Principalities, and northwest of the Kingdom of Venira, lie a pair of large island nations covered in cool rainforest. These are the Twin Queendoms, home to a pair of elven species, the Aesir and the Vanir. The two Queendoms have been locked in a tense stalemate for centuries, despite the similarities between the two cultures; supposedly, the two elven species practice diametrically opposed magical disciplines, and look very different from one another, but are otherwise quite alike.

Certain histories, mostly apocryphal, imply that the two island kingdoms were once one, under a single queen... but an accident of some kind split the land asunder, creating a deep chasm which was filled with the sea, dividing the island in two. Neither side in the conflict has claimed responsibility for this event, making it difficult to prove... if the royal family of either side knows, they aren't speaking.

Borealis and Snowcloak

North of the Kingdom of Venira, through a treacherous wooden mountain pass, lie deep snowfields occupied by a hardy people. At the center of these snowfields lies Snowcloak, a settlement said to be built of ice and packed snow. The mountains dividing the Snowcloak region from the deeper cold of the northwest are said to host a number of hot springs, which occasionally tempt people to venture further north to visit them.

Nothing, however, serves to attract people past the mountains into the frozen region of Borealis, however. The mountains here are dominated by an icy glacier, and beyond that is only said to lie death and more snow. Yet tales have been told of a fall, not unlike that of the Fallen City, of a shining star upon the frozen land, its ruin awaiting discovery... and other rumours persist of seeing foreign vessels landing at the frozen coast here... who, and for what purpose? And more importantly, where are they coming from? Surely not the unexplored reaches of the west...

Beyond the Ocean Reaches

Past the known lands of Venira and its neighbours, little is known. Large islands have been spied but never explored, and the western and eastern oceans span leagues with no sign of land; Venira has been, to date, too concerned with its own internal affairs to mount a successful expedition. If any independent explorers have ventured out that far, however, they have yet to return, their fates unknown.